Brady to face rare selection headaches after players return from injury

Cobblers boss Jon Brady is looking forward to the novelty of being faced with some selection headaches when his side go to Burton Albion this weekend after the return of several key players.

Jack Sowerby, Shaun McWilliams, Ben Fox, Sam Sherring and Sam Hoskins all returned from injury to feature this week, either against Bristol Rovers at the weekend or at Oxford United in Tuesday’s 2-2 draw.

"Everything against Oxford was pre-planned apart from the final two subs in terms of how many minutes players could have,” said Brady. "Those were the constraints we had but we are just starting to build a good amount of minutes for those players who need it.

"Hopefully, two or three games down the line I will have some better selection issues and they will be good issues to have. In the past, when we've had good results, we've taken a bit of pain but hopefully there's no pain from this week and it's all positive.

"Some might need a rest and there's a balance to get right because we're going through a heavy period of fixtures. It will be nice to have no Tuesday game next week because that will give the players a bit of a breather.”

Sowerby was absent from the squad against Oxford despite coming off the bench in the win over Bristol Rovers four days earlier.

"Jack’s fine,” Brady confirmed. “What we’re trying to do with him is have a real good training week and get him really, really strong. We felt that would be more beneficial for Jack in the long run.

"We want to hit the right balance so that’s how we’re going to try and manage it to make sure we have as many bodies fit as possible.

"We've not been in this position very often due to the squad size and the amount of injuries but we've acquired Liam Moore and Dom Gape and that's helped boost the squad and we will need that going into the final part of the season.”