Team news for Saturday
John Still has admitted that injury and illness, which kept a number of players out of last week’s 2-0 win over Oxford, has lingered for another week at Kenilworth Road ahead of Saturday’s Sky Bet League 2 trip to Stevenage.
The Hatters were down to the bare bones in recent weeks, but the boss’ mood has been lifted off the back of four games unbeaten and that, slowly but surely, members of his squad are returning to fitness.
A host of senior players were involved in the Town’s 5-2 development squad victory over Gillingham on Tuesday, with striker Paul Benson and defender Andy Parry both playing 90 minutes and midfielders Alex Lawless, Jonathan Smith and Nathan Doyle all an hour.
It gives the manager options ahead of the weekend’s fixture with Stevenage, with defender Curtley Williams also in contention after coming through training this week unscathed.
Luke Rooney, Paul Connolly and Fraser Franks are a quartet almost definitely unavailable, whilst Parry is two weeks short of a return as he builds on his match-fitness.
“We still have a bit of a bug going round but it’s not in the same numbers as last week,” admitted Still at his Thursday lunchtime press conference. “A couple of players are off today, a few who have not been well have trained today also.
“Last week we couldn’t pick a team until Saturday morning. That might be the case again this week but we’ll have a look at it tomorrow.
“We’re mindful that we don’t want to risk players, or rush them back from injury. We’ve had players in the team to do a job because we’ve had no choice. We’re slowly seeing a number of them back but we won’t be putting players in for the sake of it.”
Full story and video to follow.