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The Cobblers will be without Kevin Thornton and John Curtis when Darlington come to Sixfields on Saturday.

In addition, Luke Guttridge is a doubt after all three were injured playing in a behind closed doors reserve team training game at Nottingham Forest this week.

"We had a reserve game in the week against Nottingham Forest at the City Ground and that was pretty much a disaster for us because we picked up three injuries, all to midfielders," said Cobblers boss Ian Sampson.

"Luke Guttridge, Kevin Thornton and John Curtis all picked up injuries, Kevin and John are both definitely out for Saturday and Luke is 50/50.

"Luke's injury is his ankle and Kevin has got a knee injury quite similar to Andy Holt's and he could be out fairly long-term. John has got a calf injury which will probably keep him out for a couple of weeks.

"We needed to get them a game because they haven't played for a few weeks but unfortunately it ended up working against us.

"The two lads that did play most of the game in centre midfield for the reserves, Michael Jacobs and Alex Dyer were both excellent though and they have given me food for thought for Saturday.

"Steve Guinan joined in training on Thursday, he won't be available for Saturday but to have him training again is a big help for us.

"Alex Konstantinou came into the squad the other week because we were a bit short on numbers, he has got good technical ability but there are still other parts of the game that he needs to work on. He's got potential but I wouldn't say he's ready for the first-team at the moment.

"I'm pleased with the progress of the youngsters this season and that is a route we want to go down. We want to get more youngsters into the squad but we are not just going to go down the line of putting youngsters into the team because that is the right thing to do, they have got to have some ability as well.

"No more players have come back to me yet on their contract offers and as the situation stands at the moment Paul Rodgers is the only one of the out of contract players to have verbally agreed a deal for next season.

"Malcolm Crosby is still thinking over his offer but I've got my fingers crossed that will be sorted soon."