Cobblers team news for Reading - latest on Wheatley, McCarthy, Guthrie and Shaw

The pair did not finish Saturday’s win at Doncaster, Wheatley was withdrawn with 15 minutes to play after taking a knock while McCarthy came off for Jordan Willis at half-time, with Kevin Nolan citing a hamstring issue in his post-match interview.

"Tuesday might be too early for Conor,” confirmed Nolan on Monday afternoon. “We’re going day by day with him but he’s in and around it and we’ll wait and see how it goes with him. Ethan has trained with the boys this morning so there are no problems with him and everybody else came through OK on Saturday."

In further good news, club captain Jon Guthrie and midfielder Liam Shaw are both creeping closer to full fitness. The pair have not played in 11 and nine months respectively due to ACL injuries.

Nolan added: "It was nice to see Liam Shaw back among the lads doing the warm-up today and Jon Guthrie has been back with us for the last week or so. We just need to build him up carefully but there’s a nice atmosphere around the place and winning always helps.”