Cobblers hoping to have Willis and Shaw available for crucial Bristol Rovers showdown

Shaw has been excellent since joining Town at the start of January but he was absent for Saturday’s defeat to Wrexham, with manager Kevin Nolan later revealing the midfielder is battling a hip issue.

Providing an update on Tuesday, Nolan said: "Liam’s in good shape but we have to be careful with him. He’s feeling his back and he’s come in and played a lot of football for us, especially considering he didn’t have a pre-season. We didn’t want to jeopardise him on Saturday and potentially make the injury worse.

"We have de-loaded him this week and we will see how he goes day-by-day. Every morning we get an update and he is getting better and I’m hopeful we will see him pretty soon. If that's Saturday, fantastic. If not, we just make sure we’re doing right by the player."

Willis started against Wrexham but lasted only 37 minutes, and Nolan explained afterwards that the defender was risked despite his long-standing knee problem flaring up on the morning of the game.

Asked for the latest on Willis, Nolan said: "It’s similar with Jordan. We have to look after him because he’s done fantastically since I came to the club. He has a problem with his knee and it was just blowing up a bit too much for his liking and it got the better of him at the weekend.

"That was unfortunate because he’s been a catalyst for our clean sheets in the back three. It shows what type of man he is to put himself out there despite feeling the way he was and he’ll bounce back.

"He’s a strong character and a great player and I’m delighted to have him around the place. He’s just another one we are taking day-by-day and we’re trying to get the swelling down as much as we can so he can get out on the training pitch. I hope he’ll be available for Saturday.”