Cook could make a '˜Lazarus-like' recovery to face Hartlepool

The 26-year-old was stretchered off in what looked like a very bad away against Crawley Town on Saturday after suffering a neck injury in an aerial collision with Conor Henderson.

However, after being sent to hospital, Cook was allowed home a few hours later with just soft tissue damage and on his chances of retaining his place against the Pools, boss Nathan Jones said: “You never know. Literally from being carried off and looking like the bionic man, he was walking round after the game and was in today.

“We’ve kept him relatively light today, but you never know. We won’t take any risks wit him, but these ginger ones they recover quickly.

“It was kind of a whiplash injury, so we’re taking it day by day, but it’s muscle spasm, so if we can loosen those off he’s good to go.”

The Luton chief had feared the worst when Cook was being taken from the field, so admitted to being left delighted by the speed of his recovery.

He continued: “It was a bit like Lazarus to be honest. We’ve seen him after the game as he was carried off and strapped in, and we were worried about him.

“He did make the most of it but praise the lord it wasn’t as for anyone’s safety, we don’t want to risk anything like that.

“But also for Jordan as he’s in wonderful form and we want to keep him.

“The big thing for Jordan as this probably the season where he’s really played the most games and had the most impact.

“He’s really impacting now, so we want him to continue that and to get even better.”

Team-mate Jonathan Smith had been concerned by the injury to Cook at the time too, especially with the form the ex-Walsall and Sunderland man has been in recently too.

Speaking after the game, he said: “It was a bit of a worry when he was laying there not moving, but I spoke to the doctor and apparently he’s all right.

“So we wish him a speedy recovery, because he’s been playing really well for us so we hope he can come back quickly.”

Meanwhile, striker Danny Hylton added: “On the pitch, you’ve just got to try to put it to one side.

“He’s in good hands with the physio and the doctors and we just had to get the job done. We’ll do that one for Cooky. He was in there (dressing room) at half time, still on the physio bed, but he’s in good hands and I hope it’s not too bad.”