Luton Town are set to welcome midfielder Jake Richards back into the squad for the FA Cup second round trip to Fleetwood Town tomorrow after he missed the last two games through injury.
The 19-year-old had been close to featuring last weekend for the 1-1 League One draw with Bolton, but the coaching staff chose caution, having tried to rush him back once earlier this season only for it to backfire.
Richards’ return is a timely lift for boss Jack Wilshere, whose side face a packed run of fixtures this month.
Wilshere confirmed the teenager is ready, saying: “Jake’s okay. He got a knock against Huddersfield and he was close for the Bolton game, but we tried to do that earlier with him in the season and he came off at half time because he had a knock, so we wanted to give him a little bit more time to recover. He’s back in training.”
Full backs Reuell Walters and Joe Johnson made their third and first appearances on Tuesday night in the 4-0 Vertu Trophy win over Exeter after lengthy spells out injury and the manager was pleased with how they came through their return.
“Yeah they’re good,” Wilshere said, adding: “They came through it well and they played really well. They’re quite different profiles to what we’ve had there this season, but I thought they performed really well. The main thing was that they came through and it was their first minutes and introduced them a little bit to the role of the full back, how I see it.”
There was positive news too on Jordan Clark who is closing in on a return, though Fleetwood will be too soon.
“Jordan’s closer because he’s been training with us now,” Wilshere said, but striker Nahki Wells remains some way off and isn’t yet back in training.
Wilshere also said that winger Isaiah Jones has suffered a frustrating setback and is still not ready to return.
“He’s still in a little bit of pain which is frustrating for everyone because he was on his way back. He was building his minutes, he was building his momentum, he was feeling comfortable and then obviously an incident in the Barnsley game where he had to stop and he hasn’t got going. We’re going to need him at some point and we have to try and get him back as quick as possible, but there’s also an opportunity for others to step in.”
Having made wholesale changes for the win against Exeter and with a midweek league match at Leyton Orient following the cup tie, Wilshere admitted selection is “always tough” and some players will need honest conversations about their role across both games.
He said: “It’s always tough and I always have to have conversations with players and I’ve said it before that probably might not be involved but then will play on Tuesday. It’s a little bit different because we’re allowed nine players on the bench in the FA Cup. So probably the whole squad will look a little bit different.”
He stressed the value of rotation in a demanding schedule, adding: “The demands and how quick the game is, how much we demand physically from players, this is impossible for you to play the same team for the whole season so you have to be able to rotate.”
Be the first to comment