Cobblers captain Jon Guthrie set to make his return from injury

Cobblers skipper Jon Guthrie is in line to make his return from injury against MK Dons in the EFL Trophy on Tuesday.

The 31-year-old defender has not played since going down with a hamstring problem against Reading at the start of October, which was a recurrence of the injury that kept him sidelined at the end of last season.

But he should be involved in Tuesday’s dead rubber and may even start as manager Jon Brady looks to ease his captain back to full fitness before the return of League One football this weekend.

Striker Louis Appéré may also be given a first start since his own injury but Lee Burge, Max Dyche, Tyler Magloire, Ben Fox and Danny Hylton all remained sidelined and are unlikely to be involved on Tuesday.

Brady said: "We're hoping that Jon could potentially get some minutes, as well as one or two others, and we see this game as an opportunity to gauge how the fitness levels are in a few players because it's important to build towards the weekend.

"A couple of the other injured players are little way off at the moment. It'll probably be too risky to involve them on Tuesday but I think Jon will be the main one who we'll bring back in and see how he gets on.”