Luton Town’s emphatic 4-0 Boxing Day victory over Wycombe Wanderers came against a backdrop of significant disruption, with Covid sweeping through the Hatters’ squad and forcing Jack Wilshere into late decisions on his team selection.
The result was the club’s biggest win of the season, achieved despite the absence of several senior players. Reuell Walters, Lasse Nordås and Christ Makosso were all absent from the squad, with the latter originally slated to start against the Chairboys as late as Christmas Eve.
Wilshere confirmed the illness affecting his players and when asked directly after the match what his squad were suffering with, he said: “That dreaded word. Covid.”
The Luton manager then detailed how Teden Mengi was due to sit out for Makosso and how circumstances changed almost hour by hour in the 48 hours before the Wycombe game.
“Teden has been a little bit ill the last few days. I spoke to him this morning [Boxing Day] and he was desperate to play,” Wilshere said.
“Teden and Christ were ill and yesterday [Christmas Day]. Christ was playing because Teden was worse, and then Christ went worse overnight and Teden got a little bit better and Teden was outstanding. Hopefully no more [get ill].”
Asked what the club are doing to prevent further infections spreading through the squad, Wilshere admitted the challenge of managing it within a close-knit group.
He said: “We’re doing all the usual things as you can imagine, no shaking hands. Don’t spend too much time with each other, but that’s hard because we always are together.
“But there’s different protocols now. And I think, actually, some players in there probably do have Covid as well, but they just have no symptoms.
“So, yeah, we have to be careful. We have to wash our hands, we have to make sure that we’re trying to do everything we can, but also sometimes we know if you’re going to get it, that’s going to happen.
“My message to the players on Christmas Eve was, ‘I can’t tell you the team. I can’t tell you the squad now because anything can happen. You might come down with it overnight, you might come down with it’. Which was difficult, but I think the players understood it and everyone came in today, hungry, ready to go.
“And then I had some decisions to make around the squad. But some of them, as I said, it was taken out my hands.”
Wilshere had already made the decision to give his squad Christmas Day off to spend with their families, but he also reflected on how different the situation is now compared to the height of the pandemic in 2020 and 2021, when recovery periods and postponements were far more rigid.
“There’s none of that now,” he said, adding: “It’s when you’re feeling better. There was talk earlier, probably Monday about how many is it, if they have it? Is the game called off? It’s not like that anymore. So could you could have seen an under-21 team out there.”
Despite the disruption, Luton’s performance and scoreline underlined the depth and resilience in Wilshere’s squad, even as Covid continues to cause uncertainty behind the scenes ahead of Monday’s visit of Leyton Orient.
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