Isolating players could return for Cobblers against Diamonds

Cobblers self-isolating players could be back available for Tuesday's hastily rearranged pre-season friendly with AFC Rushden & Diamonds.

Shaun McWilliams, Danny Rose and Sam Hoskins missed their third successive friendly when Town hosted Birmingham City on Saturday. Midfielder Jack Sowerby, who's currently injured, was also absent.

But some if not all of those players may well play some part at Wellingborough FC on Tuesday when Cobblers face Diamonds in their penultimate friendly. Scott Pollock should also get more game-time after returning from his isolation against Birmingham.

However, manager Jon Brady will not take any undue risks if some players are not ready to return.

He said: "We've got to be careful because we need to see how some of them come back when they return to the group.

"COVID comes with respiratory problems so we've got to be cautious and we've got to be careful.

"I'll speak to the medical staff and see how many minutes they feel they can do and then it's about the player communicating to us.

"It's one hell of an unknown for me as a manager so it's something we need to be very careful about."

Town were due to take on Diamonds last Wednesday but the match had to be rearranged due to COVID. It will now be hosted by Wellingborough at 7.45pm on Tuesday after Northampton's friendly with Brackley on the same day was called off, again for COVID reasons.