More frustration for Cobblers with isolating players set to miss Birmingham friendly

Several players have been absent for the past two friendlies
Shaun McWilliams and Scott Pollock have missed the last two friendlies.Shaun McWilliams and Scott Pollock have missed the last two friendlies.
Shaun McWilliams and Scott Pollock have missed the last two friendlies.

Cobblers will again be without several first-team players when they face Birmingham City in their next pre-season friendly at the weekend.

The players in question were forced to miss last Saturday's friendly with Stamford and also the visit of Nottingham Forest on Tuesday due to being in self-isolation.

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The players not involved in those two games included Shaun McWilliams, Scott Pollock, Sam Hoskins, Jack Sowerby and Danny Rose, although the club have not confirmed which players are isolating and which players are struggling with knocks.

Joseph Mills is also yet to feature in pre-season but he was seen warming up both before and during Tuesday's friendly, suggesting he is close to a return.

"The main thing for us is that our players are safe and well and recuperating properly," said manager Jon Brady.

"Yes, it might be frustrating, but I would rather my players be safe than risk anything because, as a football club, we have a duty of care to make sure everyone is doing the right thing and that's why they're isolating at the moment."

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That means the players who started on Tuesday will have to play another 60-75 minutes, if not more, against Birmingham on Saturday.

"We got to about 60, 65 minutes (on Tuesday) and you could feel we were starting to tail off, and rightly so," Brady added. "But what we have to do now is look after the group because of the players we have isolating at the moment.

"We have quite a thin group at present and they will probably have to do the same again on Saturday."