Eppiah back in the treatment room but Sowerby comes through unscathed

Young striker Josh Eppiah faces up to three weeks out after injuring his calf in training last week.

The 23-year-old's loan spell has been stop-start since he joined Northampton from Premier League Leicester City in January.

He has started two games and only recently returned from a different calf problem when coming off the bench against Scunthorpe and then starting at Rochdale.

However, Eppiah was a surprise absentee from the matchday squad against Tranmere Rovers on Saturday and manager Jon Brady revealed why afterwards.

"Josh, in training on Friday, he was only warming up but his other calf goes," he said. "So now he's out for another two to three weeks and these are the problems we keep having."

In better news, Jack Sowerby's withdrawal in the second-half of Saturday's game was not injury-related.

Brady was reluctant to take off Sowerby, who impressed on his return from a knee issue, but with 11 games still to play this season, he accepts now is not the time to be taking risks.

"I had to see the big picture and look after Jack so I took him off," Brady added.

"That was tough because I didn't want to but sometimes no-one knows the constraints and what you have to do and who comes off.

"All being well, Jack will be OK. You just have to see how they react and how they recover and I think that's now the important thing.

"There was no way I wanted to bring him off, I thought he was brilliant today, but if you play him longer, you take a real risk of the injury reoccurring so I wanted to take that risk away.

"But we have found a way to get through the last couple of weeks. It's tough but I was so pleased to put that side out because it felt like we had real balance to the team."

After a heavy schedule, Cobblers faded badly in the closing stages on Saturday but now have a free week to rest some aching bodies.

"There could be a bit of tiredness," Brady continued. "It was a lot of things with the conditions. It's tough when you're out in the middle.

"We have played eight games in the last month. It's been relentless, absolutely relentless, and a lot of those players have played a lot of minutes.

"I think tiredness might have played a part but we got there in the end and now we have a free week, which will be good for us."