Injury relief for McCourt, but midfielder set to be ruled out of Cobblers trip to Gillingham

The 21-year-old suffered the injury to his neck/upper back in last weekend’s 6-0 FA Cup first round win over Harrow Borough and has undergone an X-ray and a series of scans to get to the bottom of the problem.

Manager Rob Page has revealed that the good news is there is no serious issue, but says McCourt is likely to miss the trip to the Priestfield Stadium.

“Thankfully, nothing is broken,” said a relieved Town boss ahead of training on Thursday morning.

“Jak has had scans and X-rays and nothing is broken, so we think it could be nerve damage.

“That probably rules him out of Saturday’s game, but depending on how quickly it settles down, and you can’t put a timescale on it with it being nerve damage, we are hoping that, fingers crossed, he will be available for the Peterborough game a week on Saturday.”

Aside from McCourt, there are no other injuries, but the Cobblers will be without central defender Gaby Zakuani for the trip to Kent as he is on international with DR Congo, who play a World Cup qualifier in Guinea on Sunday evening.

Zakuani’s absence means Barnsley loan man Lewin Nyatanga is set to partner Zander Diamond in the centre of defence, while John-Joe O’Toole is favourite to replace McCourt.

Also, winger Kenji Gorre, who was in Holland on Wednesday night to play a friendly for Curacao, is back and available for selection for the weekend.