Jon Brady provides injury update after five players miss Barrow win

Cobblers cannot seem to catch a break on the injury front at present with several new players joining the treatment room just as others are starting to come back.

Shaun McWilliams and Tyler Magloire both made their return against Barrow on Saturday, the former on target at Holker Street as a second-half substitute, and captain Jon Guthrie was back from illness, while Ali Koiki started his first game in over three months.

But Kieron Bowie, Danny Hylton, Aaron McGowan and Ryan Haynes were absent from the squad at the weekend, and manager Jon Brady confirmed afterwards that all four have joined Lee Burge in the medical room.

Bowie is the biggest blow with the young Fulham loanee ruled out for at least two months following an ‘innocuous’ incident in training. McGowan is set to miss a ‘little period’ and Hylton felt an issue with his knee after Cobblers had to train on astroturf last week due to the freezing weather.

"I'll hold my hands up, I got Danny Hylton on the astro on Monday and it affected his knee,” revealed Brady. “We hadn’t been able to get on grass because of the weather and I felt the guys needed to run but that was unfortunate and I felt pretty bad about it because we didn't have him available for Barrow.

"Jon Guthrie has been out with illness but got through a full 90, and for Ali to be out for three and a half months and play like he did, it was an exceptional performance and his energy levels were great.

"But Aaron is out for a little period as well now so we still have a lot of injuries and you saw that from the bench that we had constraints. I had Shaun who could only come on for limited minutes and Tyler who could only come on for limited minutes as well, but at least they are coming back."