Luton boss Rob Edwards has confirmed that Amari’i Bell will be out for “a number of weeks” with a hamstring injury, but has said Tom Krauß is fit to start if picked, while Jacob Brown will travel to Plymouth with the squad.
Defender Bell missed Saturday’s 2-1 Championship win over Sheffield Wednesday and it was revealed that he’d suffered a issue with his right hamstring, having injured his left last season, which saw him miss the end of the Premier League campaign.
“It’s a number of weeks,” said Edwards, adding: “To put a sort of figure on it right now. I wouldn’t want to put that pressure on him or the staff or anyone else, but it is weeks. It’s not like a week or ten days. So, that’s really disappointing, yeah,
“It’s really, really frustrating. Really disappointing for him. He’s a big player for us. Obviously, the fact that he can play in a number of different positions as well, it gives us real scope to be able to to change things up, even with the same personnel on the pitch if we wanted to.
“I’m really frustrated for Amari’i and and then obviously for us because we want to be able to select from our best players and he’s certainly one of those.”
One player that made an impressive debut against the Owls was Krauß, whose 30-minute cameo off the bench has been widely praised.
The German arrived on a season-long loan from Mainz last month but picked up an ankle injury before coming to England, so has had to bide his time. But he made an instant impact at the weekend, and asked whether tomorrow’s trip to Devon could see him make his full debut, Edwards said: “I think, the fact that he was involved in this in the squad. He was fit to, to start, probably anyway, so certainly now, six days on, I feel that.
“So if we, if we decide to, is he fit to go and play 95, 96 minutes? I’m not sure, but we’ve got a number of players still in that position at the moment, so we’re still having to to think about all those sorts of things.”
Krauß replaced Marvelous Nakamba on the hour, who himself is just two games into his return from a nine-month knee injury.
Whether the two midfielders could swap roles in Plymouth, Edwards said: “We’ve got three games in a week. So that’s something to think about. It’s not it’s not just those two, there’s a number of them still at the moment that we’re having to, to manage a little bit, but it’s fine. We’ve got, we’ve got a good group.”
But Edwards has been boosted by the news that Jacob Brown is now available for selection and will travel with the team to Home Park to face Wayne Rooney’s Pilgrims.
The attacker also suffered a serious knee injury last season and has not featured since February.
“He’s travelling,” said Edwards, adding: “He’s making the journey down, so that’s really good for us.”
Edwards has also revealed that midfielder Shandon Baptiste and full back Daiki Hashioka are also back in training but tomorrow’s trip to Plymouth will be too soon.
Argyle sit one point above the Championship drop zone with one win this season, though that came against early high-fliers Sunderland.
Edwards said: “Some of their performances have been have been good. certainly I would say growing in confidence under a new manager and the way that they’re being asked to play now.
“They’ve got some really good threats on that top line, some tricky customers with some pace. And there’s a real clarity in how they’re playing. I like a lot of what they’re doing.
“So yeah, it’ll be a, it’ll be a difficult game.”
