Jon Brady hoping injury situation continues to clear up

Jon Brady isn’t taking anything for granted as Cobblers’ injury situation continues to improve.

Ben Fox and Ryan Haynes have returned to the squad in recent weeks while Shaun McWilliams has started the last three matches after recovering from an achilles problem.

Regularly missing 10 plus players at the end of last season, Brady was without five members of his first-team squad against Exeter City on Saturday but at least two of those – Jack Sowerby and Ali Koiki – are back in light training.

"Exeter have a big squad but we don't so we need to those players coming back from injury,” Brady said. "We still have a hangover from last season, I think we have an average of seven players out injured a week so far this season, but you've just got to take each day as it comes because last season left some scars.

"We can't take anything for granted in terms of our fitness and what we've got but we have looked into it a lot and I'm just hoping it continues to improve because it is really positive that our bench is getting stronger each game.”

Competition for places looks particularly strong in midfield, and that will only improve when Sowerby and Will Hondermarck return.

Brady added: "It would be great to have them all fit at the same time and have that conundrum of who we need to select but we don’t ever seem to have that luxury.

"At the moment we have Foxy coming back from injury and we need to build his minutes and Shaun's fresh and is coming off two games in a row. He’s building his resilience and it’ll only benefit the team if they can get a strong run of matches and perform well.”