Liam Shaw situation explained as midfielder recovers from fresh injury

The 25-year-old made a promising start to his Northampton career after joining from Fleetwood last January, scoring two goals in eight appearances, but he suffered an ACL injury against Barnsley just over 12 months ago and was subsequently ruled out for an extended period of time.

Shaw was making good progress when he returned to training shortly before the turn of the year, however he then sustained a fresh, unrelated injury that he still hasn’t recovered from. Although he is expected to be back in training before the end of the season, the club will likely bide their time and ensure he’s fully fit and ready to go from pre-season onwards.

"Liam is still doing his rehab,” said interim manager Colin Calderwood. “He certainly won’t be on the grass this month but he’s made good progress in the last two or three weeks. If he can through this month, then we have five or six games left and we’d have to see.

"He would have to do a pre-season and by the time he’s done that and he’s back fit and he’s capable of playing, we’re running out of games. It would be great to see him but we would have to make a decision because he’s been out for such a long time.

"There is no need to rush it at the moment and we have to be sure that is he completely fine and healthy to start next season.”