Luton Town To Be WITHOUT Twelve Players For Blackpool Clash

Luton Town will be without twelve first team players tonight as they head to Bloomfield Road to play struggling Blackpool, confirms Matt Bloomfield. 

The Hatters have, so far, had an awful record of injuries since the start of the season.

The Absentees

Similarly to Saturday’s home win against Doncaster Rovers, The Hatters will be without twelve players as they continue their battle for a prompt return to the Championship

But who’s out?

Defender Nigel Lonwijk, on loan from Wolves, is out with a recent ankle injury, disrupting the backline alongside Reuell Walters, the ex-Arsenal man nursing a groin strain. Joe Johnson, another young defender, remains absent with a minor knock sustained lately.

Hakeem Odoffin, signed from Rotherham over the summer, recovers from muscle surgery, delaying his debut in Bedfordshire. Midfielder Jordan Clark, with two goals this term, is set to be sidelined by a calf strain, while Shandon Baptiste faces a season-long ACL recovery from a pre-season tear.

Liam Walsh, a summer arrival, rehabs a shoulder injury post-surgery, targeting the end of October for a return. Winger Izzy Jones battles a recurring back issue. Striker Elijah Adebayo, vital last season for the Hatters over the last few seasons, rehabs a knee injury until around the New Year.

Scotland forward Jacob Brown nurses an ankle problem. Jerry Yates is under protocol for concussion after a clash. Ali Al-Hamadi, the Iraqi striker, is also dealing with a calf strain.

Bloomfield’s Comments

In an inteview with Luton Today, Bloomfield said:

“I hope to have Jordan back at some point this week. There’s no real muscle damage to his calf injury, the scan came back very good, he might be available for Tuesday, if not, hopefully next Saturday, but we’re literally just taking it day by day.

“There’s no-one else available and I don’t think we suffered anything today so hopefully we’ll have the same group available on Tuesday night and hopefully we can have Clicker at some point as well. We’ve got 12 unavailable today, we know we’re going to have Jerry available for next Saturday as long he comes through his concussion protocol, but it’s not an ideal time to have so many unavailable when you’ve got such a busy week. It’s the challenge ahead and we’ll make sure they recover properly and we’ll attack every moment we can.”

Writers View 

Luton Town’s League One season is starting to be properly derailed by injuries to 12 key squad members. Sitting 10th, this crisis is not at its peak, but before long if the team fails to pick up a run of form, things may turn ugly. They desperately need players back quickly to build squad cohesion and mount a serious push for a swift return to the Championship.