Manager Nathan Jones provided a squad update ahead of tonight’s pre-season opener against Hitchin Town.
The Hatters suffered on the injury-front last term with a number of key players forced onto the sidelines and some still remain there with the 2022/23 Sky Bet Championship season looming.
“We’re still missing Pelly and still missing Glen, obviously, and James Shea. Pelly will be back sooner than the other two, but the others are almost fully fit. It’s good to have Gabe, Elijah, Fred and Luke Berry back.
“From the last two or three months of the season, it’s like signing new players anyway. We were in such a good place then and we’ve improved, so hopefully the future’s bright."
Internationals Amari’i Bell and Allan Campbell will join up with the squad prior to the trip to Slovenia on Saturday, and the gaffer spoke in depth about how proud he was to see Campbell make his debut for Scotland.
“I spoke to his dad and we reminisced about the meeting we had, a couple of meetings with him and his dad, and we said, ‘if he comes to Luton, he will become a Scottish international’.
“Bearing in mind he’s a very, very proud, staunch Scot that has real ambition of doing that, then we had to keep our end of the bargain.
“He had a fantastic season, got better, got stronger. He had to contend with what could’ve been a bad injury early on, but he recovered so quickly from that and was then just magnificent for us.
“We’re really proud of him. I spoke to him when he came back from his holidays, and his dad. The club are really proud of him and delighted. And it’s well-deserved because there aren’t many better Scottish midfield players playing in the Championship than Allan Campbell.”
Jones is also hopeful that Carlos Mendes Gomes and Admiral Muskwe can make a real impact this season after settling in at Kenilworth Road during the last year.
“They want minutes, but they have to earn minutes and they realise that. Carlos came, with the greatest of respect, from being the star player at Morecambe, but coming into a real high-tempo, aggressive, good Championship side is a different kettle of fish, so he’s taken a bit of time to settle. That’s natural, but he’s got real ability. People see flashes of it and think he should be this or that.
“We pick a side because we know what we can rely on players and those two, Muskwe and Carlos, have to earn that opportunity, but they will.
“They’ll be better for the experience because they’re more up to speed, tuned and aligned with what we’re doing. We’re really excited for both of them because they’re great kids, the two of them.
“We’re really proud of getting them. We were looking, at times, to play 4-3-3 but, if I’m honest, we were successful last year in the shape we played, so they were victims of that.
“They were both played as wide men but we work with them to make them better constantly, and we’re excited about them.”