Sheehan's recovery suffers minor setback

Hatters defender Alan Sheehan has suffered a minor setback to the calf injury that has kept him out of Town's opening five games of the season.
Alan Sheehan leaves the field at PlymouthAlan Sheehan leaves the field at Plymouth
Alan Sheehan leaves the field at Plymouth

The summer signing from Bradford City was forced off before kick-off during Town’s opening day 3-0 win at Plymouth Argyle and has yet to feature since.

Although boss Nathan Jones had thought he was close to returning for Saturday’s 2-1 loss at Stevenage, Sheehan now isn’t expected to face Leeds United in the EFL Cup tomorrow night.

Town’s chief said: “We’ve got to be careful with Sheez, we’ve tried to get him here safely and thought he’d be a little bit closer, but we’ve had to take a step back.

“There’s no problem or anything, it’s just we don’t want to really push him at the minute, with having the ones we have and it won’t be long before we have to test our younger ones in terms of Akin (Famewo) as well.

“So we’ve just got to be careful as we want to get him back safely as he’s so important to us and we want him for the long haul.”

There has been good news regarding long-term injured duo Craig Mackail-Smith and Danny Green though, as both are now walking without their protective boots and are back on the exercise bikes at the club’s training ground.

Jones continued: “It will be even better when they’re running round but, yes, it’s good to see them walking, at least their rehabilitation is not just waiting to get a cast off or get out of a boot.

“Now they’re getting stronger day to day, and I hope we can get them back quickly, which will only add to the options.”

Although neither will be ready for Luton in the immediate future, Jones confirmed he will pick a strong side once more for the second round clash against Championship opposition, as he did in the previous game against Aston Villa.

He added: “We pick sides to win games, we’re a positive club as you’ve seen from the last two games.

“We want to win the game tomorrow, it’s a good test, a little bit of a break from league action and we’ve got two big games this week to finish the month off strongly as we want to do.

“Then there’s a little bit of a respite in the games because they don’t come as thick and fast, so we’re looking forward to this week and finishing it off well.”