Luton’s injury concerns have eased for two key players, but one Hatter has been ruled out with a “bad” hamstring injury, the news of which “really hurt” boss Jack Wilshere.
Town host Notts County tomorrow lunchtime in their first home game of the League One season, having come from 3-1 down to beat Reading in the campaign opener last weekend.
Amid all the joy of Gideon Kodua’s 96th minute winner, there were two players that were withdrawn, leaving question marks over whether they’d be fit to face the Magpies.
Kasey Palmer scored two goals in seven minutes to level the score at 3-3 in Berkshire but then was substituted off after picking up a knock.
Wilshere said: “Kasey, I think, was tired. He did get a kick, but he was fine. I think at this stage of the season, and probably throughout the whole season, I want us to be really fit. I want us to be the fittest team in the league. I said it a lot. I want us to be really intense.
“I have absolutely no problem with 60 minutes, players are tired, they’re knackered, they’ve given everything, then that’s when we need to bench and you saw that on Saturday. I think Kasey’s fine.”
The other, more serious looking injury was with centre half Hakeem Odoffin who clashed heads with team-mate Harrison Ashby and had to go off.
There were fears that a concussion protocol would follow, leaving him unable to play for 10 days, but Wilshere revealed that it’s not as serious as that, although the defender is nursing a nasty wound.
“Hacks obviously picked up a blow to the head. He had a really, really bad cut,” said Wilshere.
“We have to see how that is because he’s still there on his head and we know the type of game we’re going into tomorrow. But they’re both fine.”
Wilshere added of Odoffin treatment: “We obviously had to go through all the protocols with the EFL. They’ve done that. I leave that to them guys, the experts, they’re really good at that. But this week we’ve been managing his cut because it was quite a bad one.
“And we also know the type of game we’re going into, with a team that they can play, but they also can play long balls and are a threat from that. “We have to see how he is. He’s still got a wound.
He’s healed pretty well, but we have to see how he is.”
However, one player that won’t see match action for a while is Shaydon Morris, who has been ruled out with a hamstring injury picked up before the Reading game.
Wilshere said: “Shaydon Morris is injured. Unfortunately, he picked up quite bad hamstring injury, which is frustrating because I felt he needed a really good pre-season, and he did have a really good pre-season and then, two days before the first game, he picked up a hamstring injury, which will keep him out for some time. That’s frustrating.
“It’s a bad one, which would probably take some take some time. No doubt that he’ll come back from it and he’ll come back stronger. But, probably, when you have a player like that who’s so quick and everything he does is a fast action, yeah, it’s hard to manage.
“That one really hurt me because always, always we have to look in our mirror and what happened and we did and it’s just one of them things, [for a] quick player. Frustrating.
“But will support him and hopefully he won’t take as long. Hopefully he’ll be back quicker than we think.”
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