Frustration for Brady as illness and injury continue to plague Cobblers

Predicting Cobblers’ starting XI against Salford City 48 hours before the game would be akin to picking names out of a hat as Jon Brady’s squad continues to be plagued by a combination of injury and illness.

Town have endured some rotten luck with injuries right from the opening day of the season and it has only worsened in recent days due to a sickness bug that seems to be sweeping through the camp.

Sam Hoskins, Josh Eppiah and Max Dyche all had to pull out late before Saturday’s game at Swindon Town, and whilst two of those returned against Walsall on Tuesday, Brady suggested at Thursday’s pre-match press conference that illness is still impacting some players.

"We are having to wait and see,” said Brady. “We are still a couple of days away from the game so that gives us a bit of hope but we’ll see where we are at nearer the time.

"It’s completely out of our control but you have to be adaptable and flexible with your thoughts and we always are and unfortunately at the weekend we had players pull out at the last minute with illness.

"It’s happened again through this week with illness. I think it’s probably more than a bug that’s moving through the group at the moment.”

On the injury front, Tyler Magloire is a long-term absentee and Shaun McWilliams is still another week or two away, while Aaron McGowan needs to build up his match fitness after six months out. Ali Koiki’s facial injury, sustained at Swindon, requires further assessment, and Akin Odimayo is not quite 100 per cent.

"We are waiting on the information from the specialist,” said Brady on Koiki. “It’s frustrating but we hope to have him back fit.

"I had to fast-track Akin at the weekend and unfortunately we weren’t able to have him on Tuesday night. We will wait and see for this weekend."

Hoskins’ current condition is not known, although Brady did say he is ‘feeling better’ following Tuesday’s game, while Eppiah and Dyche are still yet to fully recover from illness themselves despite coming off the bench to feature at the Bescot Stadium in midweek.

"Potentially it was one game too far with the injuries and illness we have at the moment,” admitted Brady after Tuesday’s 1-0 defeat. "Josh got off his sick bed to play. He had no right to go on for 20 minutes at the end but I put him on because we needed something extra up there and that's just where we are at.

“Max had been ill for three or four days but he's still come on for a good 30 minutes or so even though he's not done any training with the group.

"He wasn't allowed to be in with the group on Monday but he was allowed to join us and meet us before the game on Tuesday afternoon. It's a frustrating period.”