Luton fans could get their first sight of new striker Ali Al-Hamadi when the Hatters host Forest Green Rovers in the FA Cup first round clash tomorrow night.
The Iraq international, who signed on transfer deadline day, but arrived with an injury, has been edging closer to full fitness and may be ready to feature in the televised tie at Kenilworth Road, as boss Jack Wilshere confirmed the forward is in contention after training this week, as part of a wider boost to his squad with several key players having returned this week.
“Ali’s close,” said the Luton manager. “I’ll have a conversation with the medical team this afternoon, see how available he is for tomorrow. But like you said, it’s good to have players back. It’s good to keep adding them back. They add more competition, they add more quality in training. I mean we need that. We’re going to need everyone from now until the rest of the season.”
After Hakeem Odoffin and Isaiah Jones returned to make their first appearances this season with vital contributions in Saturday’s 1-0 League One win at Northampton, Wilshere was also delighted to have midfielder Liam Walsh available again and he featured in Tuesday night’s 3-1 Vertu Trophy win over Brighton and Hove Albion’s Under-21s.
The former Swansea man was sidlined midway through September after suffering a freak training-ground injury that required surgery on his shoulder. At the time, he was expected to be absent for six to eight weeks but his return came at the lower end of that scale.
Wilshere hopes the midfielder can help provide greater control and composure in possession, saying: “You can see, probably from the way we’ve been playing, we put put Lamine [Fanne] next to Sav [George Saville] to try and get a little bit more control in games, number one with the ball, but also when we lose the ball, you’ve got men there who can counter-press.
“In my opinion, the more players you have lower in build-up, the more chance you have of being successful in that phase. So yeah, we tried to do that, and Liam gives us something a little bit different. Of course he does. Lamine is someone who is not quite the player Liam is on the ball, but he gives you something that actually runs forward, he’s got power, he’s got pace.
“So bringing Liam back probably frees up Lamine a little bit higher up the pitch, and I think there’s something we can work with there. I’ve been joking with him this week that we’re going to turn him into Frank Lampard, who scores loads of goals. So yeah, he’s exciting as well. It’s really good to have him back.”
Another long-term absentee, Jacob Brown, has also been closing in on a return to first-team action after months on the sidelines with a knee injury.
“Jacob has been in and out of training since I’ve been here,” Wilshere explained, adding: “We’ve been working closely with the medical team to say, ‘right, he can do this drill, maybe come out of this drill’. And slowly, slowly, he’s coming back.
“We have to be patient with him because he’s been out for a long time and it’s actually an injury that I know pretty well. It’s similar to my one, so I know that.
“We get excited about him in training sometimes, but we have to be a little bit calm. He won’t be long and he’s looking good. And I think the key message for him is, because I’ve been there where you really, really want to get back, but we want him to stay back, we want him to come back and stay back with us for the whole season, so we have to get that bit right.”
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