Five Stevenage players sent home after feeling unwell - but Evans expects them to be available for Sixfields trip

Five Stevenage players were sent home from training this week after feeling unwell – but manager Steve Evans expects them to be available for Saturday’s League Two fixture against Northampton.

Defender Terence Vancooten is also fit again following a hamstring injury and could be set for his first start in over two months at Sixfields this weekend.

"We had five lads who had to go home because they were under the weather,” said Evans. “If it had been Tuesday, they would have trained but given it's Thursday, the advice from the doctor was to let them go home.

"All of them have called in to say they have gone through their work and they're already feeling better so we don't expect that to be a problem and the final part of the planning process will be on Friday."

Stevenage’s injury and illness issues pale into insignificance when compared to Northampton, who could have up to 12 players missing on Saturday. That said, Evans was keen to stress that his side have been hampered as much as anyone this season.

He added: "I hear about teams missing players but no-one is missing someone of Elliot List's class, no-one has missed our two goalkeepers and TVC (Terence Vancooten), no-one has missed Luther Wildin, Kane Smith, Max Clark.

"We have been severely limited at different times but my motto is to focus on who we've got. We left Terence out deliberately last Saturday to put some extra work into him but he's ready to go and he's available for Saturday."