Sheehan likely to miss Oxford United visit as Curle looks to manage his minutes

Cobblers boss Keith Curle has suggested that influential defender Alan Sheehan will miss Saturday's Sky Bet League One fixture with Oxford United to avoid doing further damage to his current injury.

The 34-year-old missed Tuesday's EFL Trophy defeat to MK Dons after returning to the team for games against Gillingham and Sunderland the previous week.

Whilst Sheehan could feature at the PTS Academy Stadium tomorrow, he will not do so if there is any risk of aggravating his current problem and therefore potentially ruling him out for another two or three weeks.

"He's back doing field-based rehabilitation and because of the qualities we know he's got, we want Alan on the pitch," said Curle. "But that can't come to the detriment of the player in terms of putting him at risk.

"What I mean by that is if it's a case of him playing one game and then being out for the following four or five games, we will do the right thing by waiting a week to make sure we have Alan back for those four or five games.

"We will listen to Alan because he knows his body and he knows what he can and can't do but we will also outline the risks to him to make sure that the rehabilitation work he's doing makes him robust enough to play regularly.

"We play Saturday, then Tuesday and then Saturday again so it might be that he only plays a bit-part role. He might only play 60 minutes just to get him out on the pitch, although I don't think he's going to be an impact sub!"

Even if Sheehan does not make it this weekend, he will still have an important part to play in his new role as player-coach.

Curle added: "I've always liked Alan and his personality and we had a conversation about progressing his coaching but not to the detriment of his contribution on the pitch.

"He's come in as a player and he's learning under the guidance of myself and Colin West about coaching and how to win games of football because there is a difference.

"People can get qualified in coaching but you need to know how to win games of football and sometimes to win you have to do the ugly side of it.

"You need an understanding of how you want to win a game. We're not going to play through the thirds, we're not going to have rotation and we're not going to have people dropping off into pockets.

"We know who we are and we've got an identity. We want to maintain our progression because the longer we stay in this division and the more we develop, then the football comes.

"But ultimately, first and foremost, we need to win games to stay in this division."