Danny Hylton wants to fight for his Luton future after ending an 11-month injury nightmare by returning to action in last night’s 1-0 win over Sheffield Wednesday.
The striker was introduced on 68 minutes to a rapturous reception, having last played competitively in March last year.
He suffered a knee injury, which kept the 30-year-old out of Town’s League One title run-in and though he returned for pre-season, it was revealed that he needed more surgery.
Hylton’s contract expires in the summer and he’s desperate to prove himself worthy of another.
“It’s a difficult situation, going into the last year of your contact,” he said, adding: “Being out for so long is probably the worst time for it to happen, but it’s happened and that’s the situation I found myself in.
“I’ve got 14 games now to do as well as I can, train as hard as I can do what I can for the team. I’ve been doing everything I can to ensure I do my best to stay here, because I love it here. I don’t want to be anywhere else. Fingers crossed I can do that and see what happens.”
Hylton is also grateful that he’s been able to integrate back in with Town’s first team, rather than go out on loan, as Glen Rea did with non-league Woking in November.
“It was never offered to me,” Hylton said of the possibility of a loan.
“It was never said, ‘you should go on loan.’ There were offers but it’s not something I ever wanted to do. The manager never came to me and said, ‘I want you to go on loan.’
“It was always, ‘this is what you’re going to do. You’re going to train with the first team, you’re going to get your fitness, sharpness, play in-house games and we’ll arrange some games for you to play here.’”
When Hylton returned to full training with the team seven weeks ago, boss Graeme Jones’ initial thoughts were that Hylton would have to go on loan because Luton do currently not have a reserve team, telling The Lutonian that it was a possibility, though he changed his thinking in recent weeks, saying that the forward was better off completing his rehabilitation at close quarters.
Hylton said: “I do recall seeing that in the press but that’s probably just when someone’s been out for so long, that the natural thing is probably to get some games on loan.
“The conversations we’ve had have always been great and positive and that it’s not something he wants to do.
“In the last couple of months I finally made that step back in the first team today, but I’m under no illusions that there’s still a way to go, to get fitter and stronger to get to the level I want to be.”
