Rob Edwards has revealed a “frustrating” injury after two of his Luton players were forced off in the first half of a 1-0 pre-season win over Ukrainian top-flight side Rukh Lviv in Slovenia today.
Tahith Chong needed lengthy first half treatment by Town’s medical staff and local paramedics after he was barged on the byline into some wooden steps by the practise pitch.
Lying almost upside down on a slope around the perimeter, it was several minutes until the attacker was taken away for further treatment, though Chong was up and walking after the match finished.
Hatters boss Edwards said: “He’s alright, thank goodness. (It was an) impact. The guys (medics) got over there very quickly and managed him, just wanted to make sure that everything was alright. He’s alright, it was just a few bangs and bruises in the end.”
But more of a concern was an innocuous injury suffered by Daiki Hashioka with the Japanese international limping off the pitch.
“Looks like he might have tweaked his calf,” Edwards told the Hatters’ website, adding: “He was just about to turn and sprint and it looks like he’s tweaked his calf so we’ll have to see how that reacts in the next couple of days and see how long he is, but it’s a frustrating one.”
But, overall, the manager was pleased with Luton’s third pre-season test, as Carlton Morris scored the only goal, his third in three consecutive friendlies this summer, while Cauley Woodrow missed a first half penalty.
Edwards said: “It’s always nice to win football matches. We’ve had three good performances, three good first halves and then, obviously in pre-season, you make a lot of changes and the games lose a lot of their rhythm.
“So, I’ve been really pleased with big elements of first halves. We’ve dominated all the games and we’ve looked a threat.
“We know we’re going to have more control now, because of the way that we play, the way that we press. We’re going to have more of the ball, so we’ve got to keep creating chances.
“A lot of our work at the moment is making sure we can still get behind teams, get good numbers forward, take risks and I saw a lot of good stuff against an athletic Ukrainian team that were aggressive and tried to to press, so (there were) a lot of good things and still things to work on.”
