Northampton Town have been rocked by the news that Tadhg Purcell will be out for the rest of the season with knee ligament damage, Ryan Gilligan requires an ankle operation and will be missing for 3 months while Marcus Hall has pulled a hamstring and will be out for 4 weeks.

"Tadhg is going to be out for the season which is bad news for the club but even more devastating for the player," said boss Ian Sampson.

"He's ruptured his cruciate ligament and his lateral knee ligament has been damaged as well. We didn't think it was too serious initially but when he had the scans it showed up the full extent of the injury and it's a big blow.

"John Johnson trained on Thursday so he should be fit for Saturday but Ryan Gilligan has got to have an operation on his ankle and he will be out for three months.

"He's got some extra bone growing on his ankle which is causing him a lot of discomfort and it needs to be scraped off. I don't think the operation is too bad but the recovery period is quite long. He has battled on in some discomfort for a long time for the benefit of the team but the pain is unbearable now.

"Losing Ryan is a big blow, he is a big part of our team but we have to try and be positive and it gives an opportunity to someone else in the squad.

"Marcus Hall pulled his hamstring on Tuesday night and he is going to be out for around a month so in terms of injuries things aren't looking too good at the moment but we have to deal with it.

"Paul Rodgers will probably slot in at left-back, Charlie Death has done well but it's maybe a bit too early for him.

"I need some players in and the cup run has given me a bit of money to spend on wages.

"With Tadhg's injury I now need to bring in two strikers whether that is on loan or free agents. There are funds available for wages and we will be trying really hard to get a couple of strikers in over the next week or so.

"I've got people in mind who are either free agents or loan signings but I couldn't move for them before because I didn't have the funds but with the good cup run we've had that has made a bit of money available for wages.

"We'll see how Chris Dunn gets through this weekend before making any decision on Oscar Jansson.

"Oscar has done really well for us but Paul Walker is improving every day so if Oscar does go back and Chris picks up an injury during a game then I'd have no qualms in putting Paul in."

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