Brady admits he already has an eye on next season after providing update on Moore, McGowan, Sowerby, Odimayo and Koiki

Jack Sowerby was forced off against Reading. Picture: Pete Norton

Cobblers will continue to protect players between now and the end of the campaign after manager Jon Brady admitted he already has one eye on the start of next season.

Town started the current campaign with a whole host of injuries that were carried over from 2022/23. Two weeks before the season started, Brady only had nine first-team players fit and available.

Although the situation isn’t quite as bad as 12 months ago, it has been another frustrating season on the injury front for Cobblers and so, with their League One status pretty much confirmed, Brady is already casting one eye to the future.

Liam Moore was not involved against Reading on Good Friday and Ali Koiki was not ready to start while Aaron McGowan came off in pre-planned substitution in the second half. Akin odimayo was seen doing sprints before the game but he did not feature in the squad. Jack Sowerby, meanwhile, appeared to pull his hamstring in the second half but Brady provided a positive update on the midfielder afterwards.

"I thought Jack had pulled his hamstring but it was only cramp so I breathed a massive sigh of relief,” he said.

On the others, Brady added: "I didn't want to break Aaron. He was in that red zone and we need to look after him so we put Shaun (McWilliams) at right-back because it's a little bit too soon for AK (Akin Odimayo) but we are getting there with one or two.

"We're managing Liam's minutes and Manny (Monthé) has had to play out of position at left-back again against a very tough competitor in (Femi) Azeez but we made some adjustments and I felt he got the better of him after the first 30 minutes. Fair play to Manny for that because he's a centre-half playing at left-back against one of the best players in the league but he managed it well.

"We can't start Ali yet. We can't. We have to manage his minutes through and build him up and make sure we look after him.

"We feel Liam is in the red zone. What he's done is outstanding, to come back and put in the performances he has done, but he felt tight the other day so we're going to protect him. It was a tough one going back to his old club and he really wanted to play but we have to do the sensible thing over the romance. Those are the calls you have to make as a manager.

"We're nearing the end of the season but now it's about making sure that we don't start next season how we started this season so we will protect players, manage their minutes and not break them.”