Northampton Town top-scorer Sam Hoskins faces a spell out of action ahead of their clash with Wanderers.

Hoskins was forced off with a hamstring problem during the first half of the 4-1 defeat at Portsmouth last weekend.

Sam Sherring will also be assessed ahead of the visit of the Whites following an ankle complaint in the warm-up at Fratton Park.

“Sam Hoskins has had a scan and he will be out for a few weeks,” Jon Brady told the club website.

“I am careful of putting an exact timeframe on it but if we get him back within a month that would be a bonus. We hope it is more of a short-term thing and it could have been worse.

“Sam Sherring has not trained this week and we will have to assess him again before the weekend.

“Injuries have made it difficult to keep a consistent backline. We pride ourselves on our defensive capabilities but having to chop and change does make a big difference in terms of detail, especially when it comes to set pieces.

“We have to try and cope with that and adapt, that is the situation and we have to deal with it.”

Ben Fox returned to the matchday squad last weekend but Aaron McGowan, Akin Odimayo, Tyle Magloire, Ali Koiki, Jack Sowerby, Shaun McWilliams and Danny Hylton are all sidelined.

Brady added: “We are not expecting anyone else back for the weekend. We are still building Ben Fox’s minutes - it was good to see him back out on the pitch last weekend and it is great to have him back.”

The Cobblers have lost back-to-back games following their defeat at Portsmouth and sit 11th in the League One table.

"Everyone tipped us for relegation and there was a reason why people did that but we have shown we are competitive in this league. Portsmouth is a tough place to go in anyone's books,” the manager continued.

"To give away the goals we did, it makes life a lot harder but they are a side who are potentially going to go on and get promoted to the Championship so they have a different fight.

"We know the fight we have to fight and we need to keep working extremely hard to make sure we do our best to stay in this league.”