Manager Wilder to appoint new sports scientist at Cobblers

The manager has been irked by the amount of injuries that have affected his squad this season.

Disruptive spells on the sidelines for key men such as Marc Richards and Ricky Holmes have hampered the club’s promotion push during the past couple of months.

But it is not just in recent times that Wilder has been frustrated by injuries, with the boss admitting the lengthy list was ‘freaky’ back in October and saying he was unable to put into words how much the absences had ‘hurt’ him a couple of months later.

Head of sports science Craig Smith departed Sixfields in January and now Wilder is ready to recruit a replacement.

“When I first came into the football club, the major short term thing was to get over the finishing line in retaining our Football League status,” Wilder said.

“Then you have to look at all aspects of the club and we’re shortly going to be announcing we’re going to be introducing a new sports science and conditioning coach.

“That person will look after that side of the club in conjunction with us, and myself and Alan (Knill) need to take a more hands-on approach, which we will be doing.

“We’re setting up a pre-season that will be a little bit tougher so that hopefully we get the rewards come this part of the season, that we’re not struggling to get to 90 minutes.

“Hopefully we can come on strong and we can do that in terms of organising and planning the right sort of pre-season.”