Luton have received a major boost to their promotion hopes as Reece Burke and Gabriel Osho have returned from injury and could feature against Hull thanks to modern medical advances such as cryotherapy.
The defenders have been out of action since mid-April, missing the last three games, and there were concerns about their availability for the play-offs, which Town have already qualified before.
But having trained today ahead of Monday’s final game of the regular season against Hull, the Hatters are all but free of the devastating injury pile-up that hampered them in the play-offs last term, with just forward Cauley Woodrow still to return.
And Boss Rob Edwards has praised their resilience and Luton’s medical staff in helping speed Burke and Osho’s return from a groin and knee injury, respectively.
The manager said: “Credit, first of all, to the lads themselves. They’ve got to look after themselves now, as to be an elite athlete you’ve got to live it.
“The staff have been brilliant as well, especially in turning around those two players. A big effort from the staff and the lads themselves, let’s just see where they are in a couple of days time.
“There’s no guarantees with anything yet, but they’re in good shape and the squad itself is as well which is really good.
“Generally when things are going well, you’ve been winning, you find there’s a few less injuries and people want to be out there.”
The defensive duo have been undergoing a series of treatments including cryotherapy that was used to try and get Elijah Adebayo fit for the play-offs last term, though it proved unsuccessful.
Edwards said: “It’s not unique to them, it is par for the course now and the work that the medical guys do.
“There’s obviously experts in certain fields that we will all lean on and use, all the clubs will be doing the same thing and different sports people will be doing the same sorts of things.
“But there’s cutting-edge stuff now that I won’t fully understand that can help and it’s just going to keep getting better and better and better.
“It’s because the lads are professional and have done everything that’s been required of them to try and turn this time around and it’s almost gone really quickly.
“If there’s a chance of us being able to select on Monday, that turnaround time has been really, really quick, so a big credit to them and the staff.”
