Barnsley are in good health for their last five matches before the international break, with coach Conor Hourihane crossing his fingers it will stay that way.

The Reds are due at Northampton Town at the end of March, but with Owen Goodman (England), Patrick Kelly (Northern Ireland), Jonathan Bland and Vimal Yoganathan (Wales) all in strong contention to receive international call-ups at full or under-21 level, that game is likely to be postponed.

It breaks the upcoming games into a clear block squeezed into a fortnight, but with four of the five matches at home.

At present, only Kelly, Josh Earl and Wolverhampton Wanderers loanee Tawanda Chirewa are injured. Given the thinness of their squad, Hourihane really needs it to stay that way.

FOOT INJURY: Barnsley's Patrick Kelly (Image: Jonathan Gawthorpe)

placeholder image — FOOT INJURY: Barnsley's Patrick Kelly (Image: Jonathan Gawthorpe)

"Everyone's in a decent place other than Josh, Tawanda and Patrick Kelly," he confirmed.

"Pat's probably looking at missing the next couple and hopefully having him back for Mansfield (on March 14). Josh and Tawanda are probably going to be back in the international break.

"The first game back after international break, that's kind of the games that we've earmarked for both of them.

"(We've got) five games until international break and that's not been confirmed that it's going to be called off yet either.

SMALL SQUAD: Conor Hourihane (Image: Jonathan Gawthorpe)

"Can we get that little bit of luck with injuries and have the squad that we have right now up until that point? Because other than Marc Roberts, who wasn't in the squad on Tuesday, that's our lot. No one else is missing, it's just Pat, Josh, Tawanda and Marc Roberts who's the only fit one and not in the squad.

"So, from that point of view, you know, we need a little bit of luck in this little short period of time up until that international break until we get a couple of bodies back."

Asked if having so many games at home was a help, Hourihane replied: "It will be in terms of travel, because of our relentless schedule.

"We hope that it (the run of home games) would get kicked off to a good start against Wycombe on Tuesday night (they lost 1-0) but that obviously wasn't to be the case.

"Whether it's going to be a good thing or not, time will tell but we really need to bounce back from Tuesday night and put in a real positive performance at home."

Saturday’s game at home to Exeter City will be a first back in charge of the Grecians for former Rotherham United manager Matt Taylor, but Hourihane is expecting a broadly similar approach from a club who have had a tradition in recent years of getting the ball down and playing.