Cobblers to 'address' injury problems as Nolan admits he's 'worried' by squad's fitness record
Cobblers plan to ‘address’ the club’s persistently poor record with injuries this summer, firstly by placing an emphasis on signing 'robust’ players and then by setting out a rigorous pre-season regime in preparation for the 2025/26 campaign.
For the third season in a row Town’s on-pitch aspirations have been plagued by an inability to keep players fit. Multiple first-team squad members had already gone under the knife on various body parts by November while three players suffered season-ending ACL injuries – Jon Guthrie, Liam Shaw and Callum Morton – as once again the physios and medical department were kept extremely busy.
Speaking at last week’s Fans’ Forum, hosted by the It’s All Cobblers To Me podcast in the newly-opened LCS Stand, Colin Calderwood and Kevin Nolan were specifically asked about the ongoing concerns regarding injuries.
“There is something we can address,” said Calderwood. “Pre-season can take care of some of it. This pre-season the players will be pushed to the edge to build robustness. We need a tough foundation for next season.
"We will look internally to see what we can do better but since January the injuries we have had have mostly been what you would call unlucky injuries such as ligament injuries that are non-contact. We will certainly be looking to improve things and pre-season will be a key part in that and we have already had good discussions. Pre-season will be long and arduous but there will be science and a plan behind it.”
Nolan has previous spoken about the need to improve the resilience within the squad, and he can start by signing players who will fit the bill this summer.
“It’s my job to make sure we get better.” he said. “From what I have seen I have to get players who can kick the club on again. Are we able to sustain Saturday, Tuesday, Saturday? I am worried there may not be enough here who can do that and we need to look at that.
"Players themselves have family reasons to consider too. There are a lot of issues to consider, we might get some right or some might disagree but we will make the decisions that we feel can take us on and that we are not in the same position next season.
“We want to have a core who build the culture and I want that culture to be right. We are looking for robustness. What is a player’s history? Do they got a lot of injuries? That forms part of our decision making process. You also need to know if they are a good character.”
Another topic of conversation at the forum was the budget, with chairman Kelvin Thomas saying: “I think it’s clear running a football club is not a profit making exercise but we are managing to compete with some serious clubs and budgets now and we have to keep building to make sure we continue to progress.
"It’s not all about money, it is also about culture and we think we are getting that right. Some clubs could go down with budgets significantly higher than ours and that is because we believe we have a good culture here. We are not Ryan Reynolds but we will continue to do what we can.”