Luton are down to the “bare bones” to face Liverpool on Sunday but boss Rob Edwards says he won’t moan or complain about the situation.
The Hatters will host Jurgen Klopp’s high-flyers at Kenilworth Road with a depleted defence and none of the four players in that area ready to return yet.
Amari’i Bell, Reece Burke, Mads Andersen and Dan Potts all have hamstring issues, on top of midfielders Jordan Clark, Luke Berry and Arsenal loanee Sambi Lokonga all absent.
Gabriel Osho returned last week for his first game of the season and managed 60 minutes during a 3-1 defeat at Aston Villa, so would be likely to feature again for an even bigger baptism of fire against the likes of Mohamed Salah and Darwin Nunez.
“(We’re) a little bit down to the bare bones, but there are quite a lot of teams in a similar sort of position at the moment,” said Edwards, adding: “It is difficult but you won’t hear me moaning or complaining about it.
“It gives other people opportunity and we’ve got to make sure that we work to the best way we can.
“We trust the group, we trust the squad. In team sports it’s inevitable that you’re going to get injuries and that’s when we need the whole group.
“We’ve got a really good youth team that are working with us and some really good young players that are getting good experience around us and helping us to train and are available to be on the bench.
“That’s just where it’s at at the moment but I don’t think we’re the only club in that sort of situation.”
Out of all of Town’s walking wounded, Jamaican international Bell is closest and the manager said: “He’s not quite ready (for Liverpool). We’ll see how he is for next week. What I don’t want to do is say that he’ll be available for next week. He’s working really hard and we’ll see how he is.”
Town are hopeful that Burke will be back after the international break that ends on November 21.
Edwards said: “He’s progressing well. He feels really good in himself. You can have a scan and it will tell you one thing, that it’s X amount of time, but then you’ve obviously got to be able to treat the player as well.
“I don’t like to give timescales and put unnecessary pressure on the player or the staff that are working with him at the moment, but I’m really hoping he won’t be too much longer after the international break.
“Let’s see, but don’t hold me to that. He is a miss because he was performing really well, so it is a disappointing one.
“It’s a frustrating one because we’ve got a few of them at the moment, as have other clubs. We’re working really hard to make sure we can get them all back and keep them back as well.”
