Chris Forino has had surgery on his hamstring issue and will now be out of action for “three to four months”.

The defender, who joined on a free transfer from Wycombe over the summer, picked up the injury against Arsenal.

It is a blow for Forino, who had been building sharpness and momentum after missing most of pre-season.

In more positive news, Carlos Mendes Gomes has returned to full training and could be involved against Aston Villa Under-21s in the Bristol Street Motors Trophy on Tuesday night.

Gomes has not featured since February after suffering a ruptured Achilles at Wigan. This weekend’s clash with Shrewsbury is likely to come too soon for the 25-year-old.

Gethin Jones and Will Forrester are also nearing returns, while Klaidi Lolos was back in the squad at Northampton.

Both defenders are yet to feature this season. Jones picked up a knee injury in pre-season, while Forrester had surgery on a broken and dislocated toe.

When asked if there were any fresh concerns ahead of Saturday's fixture, Ian Evatt replied: “Not at the minute.

“Obviously, we have got Klaidi back. Carlos is back in full training but this game might be a bit too soon, we may potentially look at Tuesday night to get some minutes for him.

“Gethin is almost back, Will is almost back. Hopefully, come the end of the (international break), the vast majority of the squad will be available.

“Chris had surgery the other day on his hamstring, we are looking at probably three to four months with him.”

Wanderers return to the Toughsheet Community Stadium this weekend and will be hoping to head into the international break on the back of another positive result.

“We are looking forward to it,” Evatt added. “Three games in six days against different types of opponents.

“The Crawley and Northampton games, in the past, we have struggled with at times so it was great to put points on the board. Arsenal was a great experience and huge learning curve.

“I have felt like, since the Huddersfield game, everyone managed to reset in the week before the Reading game and the players are brimming with confidence again, which is good to see.

“They were excellent for 90 minutes on Tuesday. The last seven minutes, we lost a bit of focus and concentration.

“But that could be a positive – a bit of a warning sign that we can’t take our foot off the gas again. Hopefully, we won’t do that on Saturday.”