Scans have revealed no damage to Rhys Norrington-Davies’s hamstring, while James Bree is now available, so plans to recall Peter Kioso from his loan at Bolton have been shelved – not that he could’ve been recalled until January.
The full-back was put on alert on Saturday when Hatters manager Nathan Jones said after Saturday’s 3-0 Championship defeat to Brentford that he would “100 per cent” have to bring him back.
That was because, at that stage, Town were facing a full-back crisis after Norrington-Davies was withdrawn at half time at the weekend with a feared hamstring injury.
It has since revealed it was just fatigue, as the 22-year-old has had to play every minute of the Championship campaign so far because the club’s other options – Bree and Dan Potts – are out injured.
“We’re not as bad now as we thought we were,” said Jones today, adding: “Rhys came off but it’s just fatigue, (he’s) not pulled or anything, so that’s pleasing.
“We’ve got a lot of quota to choose from, we’re in a better position than we were, Rhys has played a lot of football, which is the real problem, and we’ve got to keep rolling him out at times, but we’re in a better position.
“On Saturday, you’re looking at it and thinking, ‘we’ve got four fit defenders’. That’s not quite true now, we have a bit more competition and thankfully Rhys didn’t pull anything. If selected, Rhys is available and so is Bree, so it’s good.”
Bree has not featured since injuring his medial knee ligament in the victory over Derby, but has been back training for a week now.
However, Dan Potts hasn’t featured at all this season and the prognosis is less encouraging for the former West Ham United youth.
The left back had injured his foot before the season started, but will now be out for longer after having an operation on a groin injury that specialists initially advised against.
Jones said: “Potts has had a minor procedure that will keep him out for a couple of weeks on his groin, so he’s definitely out, but the others are looking far, far better.
“Without giving too much detail, they can be tricky things groins, and he had an abductor release, which we thought worked, but when we really put some work into him, we found he had a sportsman’s groin as well.
“The specialist said he didn’t need a sportsman’s groin, so what we’ve done is probably wasted a couple of weeks, three weeks really, so it should all be done now, if they had done everything at the time.
“But we were instructed it wasn’t necessary, but with him doing work, then it’s resurfaced again, so it’s a frustrating again, but it’s one that hopefully after the international break, we’ll have everyone fit, so it’s about getting through that.”
Jones still wouldn’t rule out recalling Kioso from Bolton, but it would be less likely if Luton’s defensive players return by the time his loan review date arrives.
“A decision won’t be made yet, we’ve got two months left before the window opens and we can consider doing that, I think it’s actually later as it’s around about the 12th or 13th his loan agreement is up for review, so we won’t make any decisions yet,” said the manager.
“But if we had a crisis then we would have no problem. He’s done well at Bolton, a good club, he went there for the reasons that he’s actually fulfilling, so we won‘t be too hasty in doing that.”
Town have also been missing Harry Cornick for the last four games. Asked about the attacker’s progress, Jones said: “Again, we’re in a stronger position, squad-wise. I don’t want to give too much away because Harry might not be fit, but we’re in a better position in terms of injuries.
“We’ve got a lot of fatigue, there’s been a lot of games and that’s not going to change, because of two games the space of three days, so we’re going to have to use our squad, hopefully we’ll have one more two more available from Saturday.”
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