We grabbed a quick work with club physio Nick Reid prior to him setting off to Boston earlier this afternoon for a young Silkmen XI's pre-season friendly at York Street.

And the news on the injury front is mixed with the season's opener at Northampton just over a week away. Long term injury victims Stephen Reed, Sean Hessey and Nat Brown are definately out of the clash at Sixfields and they are concerns over Paul Morgan after he missed the game with Huddersfield earlier in the week.

"Stephen picked up a very severe calf strain in training," explained Nick, "and its a good three weeks before he'll be in with a chance of playing. He's also missed out on a lot of the pre-season work so will be playing catch up."

"Nat Brown has a stress fracture of the shin. The advice from the consultant was that it would be another six to nine weeks before he's fit again. Nat is slightly more optimistic and feels confident that it could be as little as two or three. But we'll have a better idea next week."

"The best case scenario for Sean Hessey is six weeks before he can start full training again. He's due to have his brace taken off next Thursday when we should get a better feel as to his progress."

"Paul Morgan has had a slight reoccurance of the knee injury that kept him out of the early pre-season friendlies. He didn't play in the week but I am fairly confident he'll be okay for Northampton a week on Saturday."