Curle full of praise for McWilliams after midfielder's impressive return from serious injury

Cobblers boss Keith Curle is full of praise for the way young midfielder Shaun McWilliams has battled his way back from a serious knee injury to become a regular in the first-team once again.

The 22-year-old started 15 games in a row between August and October last season but an appendix operation followed by the injury suffered at Crawley on Boxing Day kept him sidelined for the best part of a year.

During his absence, the Cobblers won promotion to League One and signed the likes of Jack Sowerby and Christopher Missilou, while Ryan Watson was a regular in central midfield.

It seemed McWilliams would struggle to force his way back into the side, however a bright cameo off the bench in the EFL Trophy draw with Stevenage was followed by starts against Burton Albion and Rochdale, and he impressed in both matches.

"It's not only the physical stuff but also the mental work that we've focussed on with Shaun," said Curle. "Shaun's a competitive player and when he hasn't got that competitive edge in his game, he loses something that he offers the team. We've been mindful of his fitness so we've monitored him in training.

"I see it and I notice it when Shaun finds that extra yard or that extra second that gets him into a tackle and I think that's coming back into his game now and that was evident for the second goal at Burton.

"All he sees is the ball and all he sees is a tackle whereas before, in training, he was a bit more cautious and he made sure he was able to commit - rightly so."

McWilliams' first start this season came at wing-back against Plymouth Argyle but it would be exactly a month until he played again, with Curle cautious following the midfielder's long lay-off.

"The thing with Shaun is that I can tell with his movement over two yards how he's feeling," added the Town boss. "When Shaun's right, he covered that two yards with electric pace.

"As soon as you see those first two steps are laboured, you know the lad has emptied the tank and that's not a discredit to him because he came in against Rochdale and Burton and put in a great shift in both games and performed very well.

"The games are coming thick and fast which can lead to issues with fitness but Shaun has been doing the physical load and when he hasn't played, he's trained very well."