John Sadler confident David Willey will be fit to star for Steelbacks

Alarm bells will have been sounding among the club's supporters when it was announced on Monday that new signing Willey had flown home from his stint in the IPL with Royal Challengers Bangalore after suffering 'a fractured toe and adductor strain'.

RCB also tweeted a message to all-rounder Willey saying 'you were brilliant throughout! We stand by your side as you rest, recover and return stronger than ever, mate'.

The 33-year-old England white ball ace has rejoined his hometown club after seven years away with Yorkshire, and is pencilled into make his playing return in the club's opening Blast date against Worcestershire Rapids on May 24.

And according to Sadler, Willey is very confident that is still going to be the case despite the player having to end his IPL stint early.

"I have spoken to Dave, and I am quite confident that he is going to be fine for the start of the Blast," said the head coach.

"There is the mixture of an existing injury and a bit of a strain in his quad, but he will be fine.

"He assures me that will be the case, and he is already eyeing up a couple of second team games to play in as well.

"It is obviously a shame for him that he is not able to play in the IPL, and he has done pretty well out there, but it is good for us."

So did Sadler's heart skip a beat when he first heard the news of the injury?

"Yeah, it did," he admitted. "I first heard it from Dave, actually, he sent me a message pretty quickly.

"He said he had just had a scan, but I will be okay, and that was pretty much all I was interested in."

Sadler has also confirmed that Australian batting sensation Chris Lynn will once again fly to the UK early ahead of his Steelbacks stint, so that he can acclimatise to conditions.

Lynn did the same last summer, playing in a string of second team T20 friendlies to get his eye in and timing, and it certainly worked as he went on to scored a mammoth 516 runs, including two unbeaten centuries and four half-centuries in the 11 matches he played.

As it stands, Northants IIs have T20 fixtures pencilled in against the London Schools Cricket Association (May 15), Birmingham Bears (May 17) and Worcestershire (May 22), but other practise fixtures are likely to be added.

The Steelbacks' second overseas signing is another Australian, fast bowler AJ Tye.