Aidy Boothroyd has confirmed he may make ‘one or two’ additions to his Cobblers squad as he tackles an injury crisis which he says is the worst he has known as a manager.
Town will be without central-midfielders Luke Guttridge and Ben Harding for the visit of Port Vale on Saturday (2pm kick-off), and David Artell will also miss the game.
And they may also have Chris Hackett, who has only a 50 per cent chance of recovering from a groin stroin, and John Johnson, who is rebuilding sharpness after successful knee surgery, on the injured list,
Fresh blood could be drafted in, although the club can only name five loan players in their matchday squad of 18 and three will certainly start Saturday’s game - goalkeeper Lee Nicholls, right-back Danny East and midfielder Emyr Huws.
But Boothroyd, who has never known an injury crisis as severe as the current one, will explore his transfer options.
“I’ve never had a situation as bad as this in my managerial career,” said Boothroyd. “But I’m sure I will look back on this, in time, and think it was a good period for us to come through.
“We’ve got some good players in this squad but unfortunately half of them are injured.
“We have got to get them back as fast as we can and the lads that come in have got to step up.
“For the game against Port Vale, we are pretty much as we were in terms of bodies against Bradford on Tuesday night.”
The manager admits the current balance between youngsters and experienced professionals is not quite right.
Against Bradford, two of the midfield four were teenagers with just a handful of league appearances between them, with the other two - Ben Tozer and Alex Nicholls - not exactly grizzled veterans.
But taking players on loan represents something of a risk and there are other implications too, both in terms of finance and how they fit into the squad ethos.
“There are players out there with experience who we could bring in but like with anyone that we bring in they have got to fit with what we are trying to do,” he said.
“I’m certainly not going to make any panic signings or rush anything.
“I think what we’ve got to do is take a deep breath, try and assess what we’ve already got and then try and bring the right one or maybe two in, and that could happen for Saturday.”
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