Rob Edwards, the manager of Luton, was unconcerned about the Hatters’ ongoing injury issues, especially when it came to defense, following Amari’i Bell’s early substitution during yesterday’s 3-2 loss to Aston Villa.
Due to what Edwards characterized as hamstring and ankle issues, the Jamaican international had to be substituted in the first half of Tuesday night’s FA Cup exit loss to Manchester City, making him a serious worry going into the game. Despite being cleared to play, he was only allowed to play for the first few minutes. He had to rush back to thwart a visiting team’s attack before he could pull up, giving way to Chiedozie Ogbene. For the first forty-five minutes, the Town team appeared malformed, with Ogbene starting at left wingback, Alfie Doughty joining Reece Burke and Teden Mengi in the back three, and Issa Kabore occupying the right position.
Already without Elijah Adebayo, Sambi Lokonga, Gabe Osho, Mads Andersen, Jacob Brown, Marvelous Nakamba, Dan Potts and Tom Lockyer, it made Town’s attempts to get a result against a well-oiled team hunting a top four spot even harder, as looking a shadow of their normal selves, they fell 2-0 behind at the break, Ollie Watkins scoring twice. On the problem for Bell and Luton’s mounting injury list, Edwards: “I don’t know the extent of it at the moment, but obviously it doesn’t help. I know there’s a number of teams like it at the moment, players missing, and to be fair I don’t hear their managers moaning about it, so I’m not going to. It’s an opportunity for the other lads, but it does make the job more difficult with nine senior players missing, a lot of them could be starters for us as well.”
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