Four Cobblers players undergo operations as Thomas curses 'exceptional bad luck'
Four different Cobblers players have already undergone operations this season as chairman Kelvin Thomas lamented the club’s ‘exceptional bad luck’ with injuries.
Town have battled injury issues consistently over the last three seasons and their problems have plunged to new depths during the current campaign. Callum Morton has been ruled out for the whole of 2024/25 with knee ligament damage suffered against Wrexham, Patrick Brough broke his leg against Huddersfield and Ali Koiki and Luke Mbete are also out for the long-term with muscle injuries.
And this week manager Jon Brady confirmed both Aaron McGowan and Jordan Willis face ‘a period of time’ on the sidelines, leaving him with just five fit senior defenders ahead of a busy run of fixtures.
“The start reminds me a little of last season,” said Thomas when asked about Town’s stuttering start to the campaign. “We went away to Huddersfield a few weeks ago and did really well and then I felt we played well against Mansfield and deserved more than we got.
"Then we were beaten by a good Bolton side and I don't think Wrexham was a 4-1 game but it ended up that way and we didn't perform the way we would have wanted to.
"We had this spell this time last year when we had some big losses when we had to lick our wounds, we went through some tough times but we got through it. All teams have injuries, we are no different but we have been really unlucky that most of the injuries have come in one position.
"In other years, players have been out for four to six weeks but this year we have some long-term injuries and have had four operations. To have had three left-backs go down injured is exceptionally bad luck. The amount we have injured is not untypical, it is just that most of the injuries are in one position and that is tough to battle through and that is something we are working through.
"We have every confidence in the squad to bounce back, we have a good squad and I think we look exciting going forward, we know we have quality in the squad but we know we need to be tougher to score against. We have players who have been through adversity and a staff who have been through adversity and we'll come through again. The big shame is of course the injury to Callum Morton and we send Callum our best wishes for a speedy recovery.”