Injury-hit Luton have suffered another issue on the practice pitch today and, while boss Nathan Jones didn’t want to reveal the player’s identity, he admitted “we’re really fearful to train” amid a situation that is “the most phenomenal thing” he’s seen as a manager.
Town have Fred Onyedinma and Allan Campbell out for four to six weeks with ligament damage, while Admiral Muskwe, Sonny Bradley and Danny Hylton all pulled up in the warm-up of three successive games.
Amari’i Bell was out for the weekend’s 3-3 draw with Swansea, while Dan Potts has played just 45 minutes this term. The squad has also had it’s issues with Covid-19, with captain Bradley the worst hit, while Elijah Adebayo was struck down with another illness ahead of the Blackburn draw.
Jordan Clark only made his return at the weekend, after a month out due to cracking a bone in his neck in a horror clash with West Brom goalkeeper Sam Johnstone.
And all three first-choice centre halves were missing from the start of the season and Kal Naismith has been playing through injury because Town have no other options.
“Things are happening, it’s an unprecedented time. I’ve never seen anything like it, to be honest with you,” said Jones.
“We’re literally taking everything day-to-day. We have no idea what’s going to happen. Things are happening daily. Honestly, it’s the most phenomenal thing I’ve ever seen. I can’t fathom it.
“Structurally, we’re the same when we have 94-95 per cent availability rate. Now, we’re really fearful to train at the minute.”
He added: “I’m not exaggerating. At the minute, we’re having to limit the amount of training. We’ve give them two days off this week, in terms of Monday and Wednesday. Tuesday, you can’t really train them like you want to train them.”
And Jones admitted, ahead of the trip to Championship leaders Bournemouth on Saturday, that yet another player has suffered in training.
“Today, we’ve had a player go down in training again from something. It’s quite phenomenal. It’s just unprecedented.
“I can’t give you any information at the minute because that could change from them walking across the bridge to the car park.”
Asked about who got injured, Jones said: “Unless you want me to give you team news, it’s difficult. Something’s happened in training today and it’s difficult to fathom.
“It’s very difficult for me to say to you, ‘he’s recovered, he’s recovered, he hasn’t recovered, he’s coming back, he’s a week away’ because it’s team info and, at the minute, we’re keeping everything in-house, but things are happening all the time that’s a little bit worrying. Because we never have injuries. We have a 94-95 per cent availability rate in every year that I’ve been a manager.
“Now, we’re down in the 70s and that can’t happen because we’ve invested money in players. People like Fred Onyedinma, Muskwe, we’ve hardly seen them, but we’ve spent a lot of money on those.
“Allan Campbell, there’s nothing you could do with that, because it’s just an horrific injury. People are picking up little things. Jordan Clark.
“It seems to be a lot of bad luck. I don’t believe in luck. I believe in god’s will but, right now, things are going against us, because we’ve had a lot of people go down with injuries and things.
“But we can’t feel sorry for ourselves. We have to get on with it. We thought getting to the last international break would’ve freed everyone up, then suddenly you pick up five things in a 24-hour period.
“This doesn’t happen, but something is happening to us. We keep praying. I have to keep believing that things return and that’s what it is.
“But, we’ve still got a very good, competitive team. It’s just that I haven’t got the options, in a three-game week, that I would like to.”
