Stockport County defender Fraser Horsfall set to miss out against old club Cobblers after picking up long-term injury

Stockport County defender Fraser Horsfall is set to miss out against his old club this weekend after being sidelined for up to two months with injury.

The former Cobblers centre-back, who moved to Edgeley Park in the summer, has played 24 times for Stockport this season but sustained a foot injury in County’s recent 2-0 victory away at Walsall.

He could miss around two months of action, which has forced Hatters boss Dave Challinor to dip straight into the January transfer market and sign a replacement in the form of Tranmere Rovers defender Neill Byrne.

“Neill Byrne is a reactive one with Fraser’s injury,” said Challinor. “As the last two games have shown, Fraser is massively important to us, but we are looking at, if you said to me he would be back within eight weeks with no setbacks, I would take that now.

"All of a sudden we found ourselves with one centre-half and he’s a young player so Neill brings experienced and he knows how we play and how I like to go about things, which means we don’t have to spend weeks and weeks on the training pitch.”

Whilst Horsfall’s injury is a blow, Challinor should be boosted by the return of some key players when his side host the Cobblers on Saturday. Stockport have been hampered by illness over the last few weeks but look to be over the worst of it.

Speaking after Sunday’s FA Cup defeat to Walsall, Challinor added: "Does Ryan Croasdale play if he’s not been unwell? Yes, he does. Does Paddy Madden start if he’s not been off ill? Yes, he does. But the reality is that those two only trained for the first time yesterday so it wouldn’t been right to chuck them out there.

"They weren’t in the right state physically but we hope by the weekend we are clear of the illness and the players will have had a full week of training. The only one with a real hangover is (Callum) Camps but he’s hopefully coming through it now.”