Bradley confident Luton will be ready for season restart

Hatters captain Sonny Bradley insists the Town players will be fully ready if, as proposed, they are to restart the Championship campaign in just under three weeks time.

On Sunday evening, the EFL announced a provisional date of June 20 for a resumption to the second tier once more, with Luton expected to complete their remaining nine games in the space of around five weeks.

Championship rivals QPR have already blasted the decision, declaring themselves 'appalled', but despite not playing competitively since early March, Bradley didn't share their concerns.

When asked if the Hatters would be in the right condition to hit the ground running, he said: "At this football club we will be, yes.

"I wasn’t sure, the boys coming back in and seeing them for the first time last week, what sort of shape they would be in and how far off it they’d be.

"But looking at the boys last week, we look sharp and we look ready to go.

"Obviously we do need a couple of weeks, like every team does, but over the course of the last nine weeks, we have been locked down, but we have also been able to train.

"Okay it has been limited, but on Zoom we have been doing certain training programmes and we’ve been able to get out, whether it’s on the road, or the grass for an hour, or 45 minutes and get a training session in.

"So I’m pleasantly surprised to see how good shape the boys are in, so I think at this club we’ll be ready.

"If that’s the 20th of June, if that’s confirmed, we’ll be ready and if we have to play nine games in five weeks, I don’t see that being a problem."

Although Town's players have been locked down for the past two months along with the rest of the country due to the coronavirus pandemic, Bradley didn't think it can be viewed as an extended pre-season break for the squad in any way.

He added: "This is different to a rest and I think people get that a little bit confused on that.

"This isn’t a case of the players having eight weeks off.

"Throughout this process we’ve had a training regime where we’ve been training five to six days a week for the past six weeks now and at the same time we’re in lockdown.

"This isn’t a case of the boys having a rest where they would normally fly off to foreign countries and get their feet up on the beach for a couple of weeks, we haven’t had that luxury.

"It’s mentally just as tough for us as it has been for the rest of the nation, so in that respect it’s not the same rest but for the legs and for the body, we’ve had a chance to manage ourselves a lot better.

"Coming back in the last week, I wasn’t sure what sort of condition the boys would be in but I’m pleasantly surprised.

"Everybody looks really good and I think Championship squads these days are large and a lot of Championship clubs have 30 plus pro’s available so it might be a case of having to use more players.

"Some players won’t be able to play if it’s six games in three weeks or whatever it may be, some players may not be able to play that but I think Championship clubs have their own resources and enough players available to get through this difficult period.

"Speaking for this group of boys and this football club, when it comes to fielding a squad for the next nine games, I can’t see it being a problem."