Luton Town Football Club can confirm that Club Captain Kevin Nicholls has left Kenilworth Road by respectful, mutual consent.

In a show of typical Kevin Nicholls loyalty to the Hatters, the decision comes after the 31-year-old volunteered to be released from his contract which was agreed after lengthy discussions.

Nicholls made 244 appearances in two spells at Kenilworth Road, scoring 33 goals.

After Joe Kinnear signed him in 2001 from Wigan Athletic, Nicholls soon became known for his influential displays at the heart of central midfield and spearheaded the Hatters to promotion in his first season.

Three years later he helped guide the Town to the League 1 title but, after one season in the Championship, he left for Leeds United.

However, his love for Luton Town remained for the Newham-born midfielder and, following a brief spell at Preston North End, Nicholls was back at Kenilworth Road in 2008 to help fight the cause in a campaign which began with the Town starting on minus 30 points.

Although that fight was unsuccessful, there was a moment of joy to take from that season when Nico put in a man-of-the-match performance to help the Town lift the Johnstone's Paint Trophy at Wembley in front of 40,000 ecstatic Hatters fans in the 3-2 extra time win over Scunthorpe.

As the Town failed to win promotion back to the Football League last term, Nicholls had a serious knee operation and as a result did not play again following the 2-1 defeat at Crawley at the end of February.

Kevin is currently recuperating from the operation and at present he is working towards getting full fitness but as yet has no confirmed return date.

Managing Director Gary Sweet said: "In the modern era, the phrase 'by mutual consent' is tantamount to saying a contract has been terminated. In this situation, that couldn't be further from the truth"

"We have talked with Kevin all the way through his rehabilitation and at this time we both felt that it was in the best interests of both Luton Town and Kevin Nicholls if we parted company.

"In fact, it was Kevin who originally approached us with the suggestion. In his time at the club he has seen us stand by a number of players who have had long term injuries and he did not want to take money out of the Club when he felt that he wasn't contributing.

"This further evidences Kevin's love for this Football Club. We also feel that it may be in Kevin's best interests to part with the Club as it will give him the option of focusing solely on himself and getting back to full fitness rather than having his progress diverted by Luton Town.

"It is widely acknowledged that Kevin turned down offers from clubs in higher divisions and took a dramatic pay cut to come back to Kenilworth Road.

"His manager at Preston at the time, Alan Irvine, even admitted that shows of loyalty such as this were very rare in the modern game.

"What some don't truly appreciate is that Kevin played down the seriousness of his knee injury last season as he felt responsible for assisting the club in its efforts to gain promotion and didn't want to let the fans, the manager or his team-mates down.

"This led to Kevin playing through excruciating pain and ultimately risking his long term health.

"We genuinely wish Kevin all the best for the future. The word legend is spoken about too easily, but it couldn't be more appropriate in Kevin's case.

"He is arguably the Club's most successful captain having won two promotions and lifted a cup at Wembley.

"Nothing would please us more than to welcome Kevin back to Kenilworth Road as an opposition player and as a guest of the Club's any time he wishes.

"I'm sure we'd all love him to be the first name on the team-sheet in our next legends celebration game, whenever that may be."