Why are the Cobblers suffering so many injuries this season?

Manager Jon Brady believes a number of factors have contributed to Cobblers’ relentless injury issues this season.

Injuries have plagued Town right from the first game of the campaign and if anything things have only got worse in recent weeks with eight players currently sidelined, three of whom – Ali Koiki, Ben Fox and Tyler Magloire – will not play again this season.

Luck plays a big part, especially with the impact injuries suffered by Magloire and Fox, but the type of players Cobblers have recruited over the last 18 months – powerful, explosive athletes – can be also more prone to muscle problems. In addition to that, several players, such as Magloire, Koiki and Akin Odimayo, were not accustomed to playing week in, week out before joining Northampton.

Factor in a relentless schedule, some boggy pitches and large dollop of bad luck and you end up with a horrific injury list.

Brady said: "About a month ago we debriefed it and really scaled down how we train, what we do and looked into the percentage of impact impact injuries, the percentage of muscle injuries, the surfaces we train on – all these things. We have looked very deep into it.

"It’s led to some tiny adjustments in training but we feel the things we have been doing are absolutely fine and the biggest percentage of injuries have been impact ones.

“There have been a couple of hamstring injuries but if you look at someone like Ali Koiki, the most he had played in one season before he came here was about 12 games. Last season he played well over 40 games and then he’s straight into another season. Someone like Tyler (Magloire) has already played more games this season than he ever has done and it’s the same with AK (Akin Odimayo) in terms of starts.

"We also recruited players based on power, pace and athleticism and we have looked into that as well. We have looked really deep into it but we aren’t finding any major issues.

"It’s self-perpetuating because we get these guys up to speed, they find their form and then we can’t rest them because we have injuries elsewhere. It’s been a real tough challenge not to have any consistency in selection and to have to keep finding different ways.”

The other factor to consider is the lack of a proper summer break between seasons due to the play-offs. Cobblers barely had a month off last summer and it was the same for play-off finalists Mansfield Town, who are suffering their own injury crisis at present.

Having spoken to Northampton Saints about this issue, Brady added: "We do transferrable skills with the rugby and they don’t have that long off between seasons but what they do is come in for two weeks, train and then have another three or four weeks off.

"We have spoken to them and listened to their thoughts because if you’re an athlete, your body can’t have that long off. You look at England footballers these days, they don't really have any time off because of the international breaks.

"I think the body needs to keep going but with shorter breaks and maybe that’s something we will look into. I’m going to find the best way to do it.”