Cobblers boss Austin to discover extent of Morias hamstring injury on Friday

Junior Morias celebrates scoring his goal against Tranmere last weekend. He was forcec to leave the field injured a few minutes later

The former Peterborough United man pulled up in agony in the second half of last Saturday’s 1-1 draw with Tranmere Rovers at the PTS Academy Stadium, just minutes after scoring his first goal for the club.

It looked a bad one at the time, but a limping Morias was in the west stand to watch Town’s 1-0 Checkatrade Trophy defeat to Wycombe Wanderers on Tuesday night, and Austin is hopeful the diagnosis will be better than at first feared.

“Junior has an appointment with a specialist on Friday, and then we’ll take it from there,” said the Cobblers boss.

“Junior says he doesn’t feel too bad, he said feels okay, so we will wait until we get the reports back.”

Morias is the only first team injury absentee ahead of Saturday’s home with Cheltenham Town, with fellow hamstring injury victim Shaun McWilliams now back in the frame.

McWilliams suffered his injury on the opening day of the season, but he returned in the midweek loss to the Chairboys after a month out, getting through 82 minutes.

He is now in the frame for selection for the clash with Robins, but Austin isn’t saying how big a part he will play.

“Shaun will be back in the group for sure,” said Austin, who handed the 20-year-old the captaincy in midweek.

“Whether we decide to play him or not, we’ll see how he is on Friday before we make that decision.

“He said he was okay this morning (Thursday), and said he felt fine after his little bout of cramp on 80 minutes or so, so we will make a judgment on him tomorrow.”

Other injury news centred around young striker Joe Iaciofano, who has yet to feature in a first team squad this season.

Austin has revealed the 19-year-old has been suffering from a side strain for the past six weeks, but that he is now taking his first steps back out on the training pitch.