Luton Town manager makes 'draining' admission ahead of Sunderland test

Luton Town manager Rob Edwards has admitted his side’s ongoing injury crisis has made him ‘a bit drained’ as he faces up to the absence of several key players for Wednesday’s game against Championship leaders Sunderland.

After suffering relegation from the Premier League last season, the Hatters have been hit by a whole host of injuries during the first two months of the new Championship campaign and are sat just three points and five places above the relegation zone. However, Edwards and his players will go into the midweek clash with the Black Cats on a high after Jordan Clark, Carlton Morris and Jacob Brown all found the net in Saturday’s home win against derby rivals Watford.

The win over the Hornets came in the face of adversity after Edwards went into battle without injured quartet Reuell Walters, Teden Mengi, Shandon Baptiste and Amari’i Bell. Tom Holmes was forced out of the action at half-time and Reece Burke, Tom Krauss and Tahith Chong were all replaced during the second-half after picking up injuries. That forced Edwards into drastic action as the likes of Alfie Doughty and Daiki Hashioka featured in a three-man defence with Mark McGuinness with youngster Joe Johnson and Victor Moses featuring at wing-back.

Midfielder Liam Walsh will definitely miss the game with Sunderland as he serves the final game of a three-match ban but there is some hope Holmes could be in contention after it was confirmed the injury he suffered against Watford was not a concussion. However, Edwards revealed it was a case of wait and see with a number of his other injured players as he looks to claim yet another win against the odds at Kenilworth Road.

Speaking after the weekend win, he told Luton Today: “I’ll do it when we’ve won as I don’t want to do it when we’ve lost, but this is incredibly challenging at the moment. It has been since February and again we’ll deal with it on Wednesday. So I’m really proud of the lads, every one of them. Alfie when he went in at centre back was incredible, absolutely brilliant. The blocks, the intensity that he played at, he was a real credit, but they all were. Hashi’s not played a minute since pre-season when he was injured, he’s got to come into a massive game like that at half time.

“We’re plugging gaps and putting people in and today they really responded. I’m so, so proud of them and the whole club. I’m happy, it’s a relief. It’s been a stressful period and it still will be as what team will we pick on Wednesday? So I’m pretty drained right now. I’ve just gone in and collapsed on the sofa after I’ve spoken to the players for five, 10 minutes, so I’ll find out in a bit (who’s available). I probably had that five minutes on the couch (to enjoy the win) and then I’ll start worrying about Wednesday.”