Cobblers to manage O'Toole workload over Easter period

John-Joe O'Toole has struggled to train for the past few weeks

Northampton head to London and The Den on Good Friday to face play-off hunting Millwall before struggling Shrewsbury are the visitors to Sixfields just three days later.

O’Toole, Town’s joint top scorer this season with 12 goals, has been plagued by a nagging groin problem for several weeks, forcing him to miss last month’s game against Oxford United as well as most of the second-half at Rochdale.

“We’re managing it,” explained Cobblers boss Justin Edinburgh. “It’s difficult for him because he’s the type of player that needs to be training day in, day out but he quite can’t do that with the injury.

“With the two games coming up we’ll have to manage it and we’ll probably have to decide if he’ll just participate in just one or a little bit of both.

“It’s certainly not getting any worse so it’s just a case of managing it.”

O’Toole is the only doubt for the trip to Millwall bar long-term absentees Gabriel Zakuani and Sam Hoskins, both of whom are making good progress.

“Everybody else has come through,” confirmed Edinburgh. “We’ve got Gabby out on the grass, he’s started to do some running and working to get back before the end of the season.

“Sammy is doing really well. His rehabilitation has gone to plan and that’s good to see.”