Manager Nathan Jones says Luton are “in a far better place” with defensive trio Sonny Bradley, Tom Lockyer and Reece Burke after they all missed the final pre-season game due to Covid complications.
Town signed off on their preparations last weekend with a 3-1 defeat to Premier League Brighton and the ominous absence of their main centre halves, while left back Dan Potts injured his hamstring and won’t be ready to face Peterborough in tomorrow’s Championship opener.
Asked about the availability of Bradly, Burke and Lockyer, Jones said: “They’re all a lot closer to where they were last week as we didn’t want to risk anyone in a pre-season friendly, we tried something, but we’ve got another good week into them now, but we’re in a far better place than we were a week ago.
“Potts is someone that it’s probably come too quick for him. It’s a thing with his hamstring which wasn’t serious, but it’s not one that we’d risk for tomorrow, but we’ve got real, real good options in that position, left side, with Kal (Naismith), Amari’i (Bell) and so on, depending on the shape we play.
“Even people like Fred Onyedinma played the majority of last season at left wingback, so we’ve always got those options to do that.”
Bell is one player that has done his preparations elsewhere as he spent most of July on international duty for Jamaica in America as part of the Gold Cup.
Jones said: “He had a week with us before and then went away to the Gold Cup, played and trained every day, so he’s had his own pre-season away from us.
“Then he came back with us for 10 days now, so he’s match fit, he’s played plenty of games, he’s a wonderful athlete and if he’s needed tomorrow then he’s ready.”
Luton have also been boosted in defence by Gabriel Osho penning a new contract.
The Welshman admitted after the Brighton friendly that the Hatters’ preparations had been disjointed because of injuries, internationals and covid protocols, but he was more upbeat ahead of the campaign kick-off tomorrow in front of a sell-out Kenilworth Road crowd for the first time in 17 months.
Asked how his squad were faring, Jones said: “Very good. They haven’t been really hampered, what they have been is a bit disjointed at times, as people are at different levels, but pretty much every club are.
“People have had certain things, internationals coming back, a couple of injuries, Covid is around, so there’s no getting away from it, everyone is probably at different stages, but what we have done is we have managed to get pretty much 98 per cent of our squad in really, really early, so it hasn’t hampered us as such, it’s just been a touch disjointed.
“But everyone’s at a real, real good level, people are at different stages, some are really flying, some have had six weeks of proper work, some have had three or four, but that’s the way it is and that’s the same with pretty much every pre-season, it’s just it’s heightened this year with the pandemic.”
