Luton defender will see a specialist to determine extent of his hamstring injury
Luton defender Amari Bell will see a specialist to determine the extent of the hamstring injury he picked up against Burnley on Tuesday night.
The 29-year-old has been one of the mainstays of Town’s team over the past near enough two years, starting all but three of the Hatters’ last 85 league matches since the 2-1 home defeat to Cardiff in November 2021,
However, he had to go off after just 21 minutes of the contest in midweek after holding his leg, and has been ruled out of this weekend’s Premier League clash with Tottenham Hotspur.
Giving an update on his fitness, Edwards said: “He’s going to miss tomorrow unfortunately.
“It’s a slight hamstring and we’re still determining the extent of it.
“He’s been awaiting a specialist so we’ll know a little bit more later on today.”
With Bell’s international career having taken off since arriving at Luton as well, playing 15 times for Jamaica, including eight games since the Hatters won the Championship play-off when beating Coventry City on May 27, then the injury does give him a chance to get his first break from football in a long while.
Although it’s one bright point to come from the injury, Edwards doesn’t want to lose a player who is such a vital component of his back-line for any sustained period of time, as he continued: “As long as he’s not missing for too long and we get him back quickly, I hope so, but we’ll know more later on today and see how long it’s going to be.
“He hasn’t really had a break with his international football as well.
“He didn’t have a huge summer, our season went on longer because of the play-offs, so he’s someone that’s been going and going and going.
“Amari’i can normally churn it out as well, and he’s very resilient, but we’ll see how bad it is, hopefully it’s not very long at all.”
With Dan Potts injured, it means that Luton don’t have a natural left-sided centre half available to them for the visit of Spurs tomorrow.
Town’s defence has been the area hit the most since reaching the top flight, with Gabe Osho unable to feature so far, while Reece Burke and Tom Lockyer have also missed matches as well.
Edwards said: “The good thing is that we brought in Teden (Mengi), who’s been a really good acquisition for us, and Mads (Andersen) as well, so we’re all right for numbers.
“It’s just frustrating as you want to be able to pick from a full squad, but it’s very rare that any of us from the 20 clubs have been able to pick from a fully healthy squad for any games especially now we’re into the season.
“It is frustrating, because you want to be able to select from everyone.”
Although Burke found himself initially rested for Tuesday night’s 2-1 defeat to the Clarets, he was soon on in place of Bell, even though Edwards had declared his groin issues would need to be managed going forward.
Asked if the centre half had recovered to be included against Spurs, he added: “Burkey, he’s probably thinking, ‘I’m coming on, I wasn’t expecting to,’ but he gets on in the first half!
“He is all right, he’s someone that we’ve got to continuously manage as again, he’s another one that churns the work out and it’s hard to rein him in.
“He’s all action every single day.
“If we were going to play head tennis out there, he’d still run 10k somehow, but I love that about him.”
Leave a Reply