Van der Merwe on standby as Northants wait on wicketkeeper McManus X-ray results
Northants are sweating on the fitness of wicketkeeper Lewis McManus after he suffered a finger injury on day one of the Rothesay County Championship Division Two clash at Worcestershire.
The 31-year-old had to leave the field early in the afternoon session, with Ricardo Vasconcelos initially taking over behind the stumps, before he was then also replaced by substitute Stuart van der Merwe.
Darren Lehmann revealed he is now waiting to discover the extent of the damage.
"Lewis has gone off for X-rays and we are waiting for the report back," the head coach told BBC Northampton.
"Fingers crossed, if you pardon the pun, that it is not broken because he has been an important player for us.
"If it is broken then we will obviously have to replace him, and we are lucky enough that we have Stuey here, who is a keeper.
"So we will go through the right process if that's the case, but hopefully it's not too bad."
Versatile batter van der Merwe has already kept for the Steelbacks in the One Day Cup this summer and can also bowl off-spin as he did for the second last week, and Lehmann added: "He is one of those cricketers that does everything really well.
"Primarily he has the keeping and batting role, and he was also spin bowling the other day, so that is what you want.
"You want all of your players to do multiple things, and Stuey can do that.
"If he gets the chance he will be fine, he has obviously played really well for us before but we do hope Lewis comes back on Wednesday."
Aside from the McManus injury, Northants enjoyed a good day at Worcester in their first run-out since Saturday’s batting horror show against Durham when they were bowled out for 50.
After a delayed start, the County claimed maximum bowling points as they rushed the home side out for 200, with skipper Luke Procter taking a first five-wicket haul for five years, before Ricardo Vasconcelos and the skipper saw their side to 16 without loss at the close.
Vasconcelos is unbeaten on 13 and that took him to 852 runs for the campaign, surpassing his previous best in an English first-class season of 845.
He has the possibility of five more innings to bat this summer, on top of this one, and Lehmann said: "Hopefully he goes big.
"This is one of those opportunities now to play well as a group and Vasco has been excellent all year for us.
"He has led from the front because opening the batting is not easy in English conditions.
"So we hope he goes big in this innings and puts in a good foundation for us, but he has been excellent all year."
Play is due to resume at New Road on Wednesday at 10.30am.