Barry Eaton is confident a three-week break from Championship action will help refocus minds ahead of the relegation run-in.

Following their defeat to Featherstone seven days ago, the Cougars are without a league fixture before hosting Toulouse on Saturday, July 24.

The visit of the Frenchmen will mark the start of a five-game fight for survival and Eaton is in no doubt his side will be ready.

“The break is not a bad thing at all,” said the Keighley chief.

“We’ve got quite a few players who’ve been playing with some injury or other for the past few weeks, so it will give them all a chance to freshen up.

“It’ll give Craig Moss and Tom Sheldrake a good chance to get back in action for the Toulouse game.

“It’ll also give them a chance to refocus minds. It’s always a long, tough season but especially this year as the players have given up a lot of their spare time to meet physical requirements at this level.

“It will be good for them to have some time away from the club so they can recover from the mental fatigue as well.”

Cougars’ next action is this coming Saturday in the Northern Rail Nines.

Eaton said: “I wouldn’t have liked to have had two weekends without a fixture at all at this stage in the season.

“We gave the players this weekend off and also Tuesday but they will have plenty of work to follow up in their own time.

“Then I’m planning to take a pretty strong side to the Nines because it will be a good chance to ease some players back in.

“It’s testing in terms of fitness but won’t have the same physical toll on their bodies that a league game would.”