Danny Hylton says the lockdown has levelled the playing field for him and raised hopes he can feature in the final nine games of the season.
The striker suffered a serious knee injury in March last year, so missed Town’s run to the League One title. He came back for pre-season last summer but then needed another operation, which kept him sidelined until January.
But under former boss Graeme Jones he only played a total of 22 minutes as a substitute before the Coronavirus pandemic struck and shut down football for three months.
Luton are now two days away from resuming their Championship survival bid with a home game against Preston North End and Hylton feels that the time spent in lockdown can benefit him.
“Before, I was playing catch-up, but now we’ve had ten weeks off and, yeah, it’s a bit of a level playing field,” the forward said.
“I felt I was in a good place before lockdown. I had two or three months continuous training and in-house games, so I thought I was in a good place anyway.
“But we’re all back in, we’re all at the same level, I feel good, I feel ready and I’ll try to do everything I can to get on the pitch and get in the team and help the team in any way I can.”
Like many of Luton’s squad, Hylton links up once more with manager Nathan Jones, who has rejoined the club for a second spell in charge.
The Welshman signed the forward from Oxford United in 2016, during his first stint in the hotseat and the manager has only had a few weeks to train his team for a nine-game month that will make or break their season.
Hylton said: “He looks after you, gives you everything that you could possibly want, but when you’re working, you’re working and he needs that sharpness and he needs that quality.
“The lads know that and the training sessions have been really good, a lot of them we know, as they’re sessions that we’ve done before when he was here.
“We’re just refreshing and memorising them again, but it’s really good and I can’t wait to play the games and I’m sure we’ll be good.”
Hylton is out of contract at the end of the month, along with a host of other Hatters, whose future remains uncertain after the three-month shutdown hit the finances of Football League clubs.
He said: “There are more important things to sort than contracts. I’m sure whoever he wants between now and the end of the season will be tied down.
“I hope I’m here; I hope I can stay, I hope I’ve done enough and they can see I can still offer something to the club. First thing’s first, it’s staying up.”
