JIMMY Dack admits he has fielded questions from players concerned about their futures at Rodney Parade, but has told his charges it is business as usual.

Dack will remain as County manager until the end of the campaign, but admits he is uncertain of his future, with Justin Edinburgh understood to be keen to reunite with Dack in the summer.

County have fallen out of the League Two promotion places in recent weeks and the vast majority of their squad will be out of contract this summer.

However, while Dack acknowledges he might not be around to make the decisions on the players’ futures, he doesn’t see that as a cause for concern for Newport fans panicked about a possible summer exodus.

“I think generally in League Two you have this uncertainty, long gone are the days when you have players on two or three year contracts, I think it is going to be a season-to-season think anyway due to the financial pressures on football clubs,” he explained.

“So when you see a player in League Two on a two-year deal now, they are doing exceptionally well.

“And it’s a help for the players or can be, because if you have a really good season you can push on yourselves.

“But I think it is largely in favour of the clubs, every player in every game has to give everything.

“The safest way for our players to safeguard their careers is to get promoted. The players have fired questions at me about the future and I’ve told them, ‘we are all fighting for our futures.’

“Every single one us is. If we finish the season and get promoted, that’s fantastic and all great on our CVs and vice versa. It’s about the players doing the best they can for their careers.”

Dack is hopeful of being boosted by a couple of key returns ahead of Saturday’s daunting trip to Burton Albion.

“We had one or two niggles and those players didn’t train on Monday or Tuesday but they were back in on Wednesday and Andy Sandell returns from suspension. Kevin Feely has had tonsillitis, but we expect he’ll be ok,” he told the Argus.

“We would like to have Aaron O’Connor back, he’s our top goalscorer and you want him in the team, hopefully he’ll be ok.”

And Dack was keen to defend County’s strikers.

“Aaron and Zeb (Chris Zebroski) have more goals than Burton’s forwards and they are top of the league. So we need more collective responsibility with the goals shared around between the team,” he said.

“Our results against teams in the top half of the table have been good for two seasons, the facts are facts and I think sometimes it’s easier to be the underdog.

“It has become a mentality thing; we like being the underdog, but we need to change that and beat everyone in the division, from top to bottom.

“It’s down to us, the staff, to change that mentality.”