Fit-again Berry relieved to be over 'frustrating' period as he targets play-off push after World Cup break

Midfielder Luke Berry is relieved to finally be over the ‘frustrating’ period that has stunted his efforts to get a regular run of games for the Hatters this term.

The 30-year-old had struggled last season to ever stay fully fit, playing just 15 matches, although still managed to score an impressive seven goals in that time.

Injured again during pre-season, Berry was back for the 3-2 home Carabao Cup defeat to Newport County in August, before making three appearances off the bench during Luton’s next three Championship three matches.

However, his calf problem resurfaced once more, keeping the former Cambridge player out for another month, until he returned to play over an hour against Reading and then earning a first league start in almost six months at Blackpool last weekend, popping up with a 57th minute winner.

He followed that up with another 20 minutes in Tuesday night’s 2-0 defeat at Stoke City, as on his time out, Berry said: “It’s been a really frustrating period, the end of last season and beginning of this season.

"I couldn’t get up the speed I wanted to be and thankfully now I’ve got some minutes under my belt and hopefully that’s a good base to work from.

“I was breaking down, I did a calf at the end of last season, and then I just kept getting little niggles with it.

"I couldn’t get up to the pace I wanted to and when I was, I didn’t feel I could get around the pitch.

"We’ve done a real regimented rehab, all real top work to try and get myself up to pace.

"I had to rest it all up, make sure it was fine and then start strengthening, get on the pitch, lots of high speed running to try to make me ready for the game.

“We’ve got a real good midfield though, real competitive, we’re all different in different ways and we’re all supportive of each other.

“If one comes out, one comes in, we’re all supportive in trying to push each other, make each other better.

"We all have different qualities to the game, so it’s brilliant.”

Berry was also keen to hail former Town assistant manager Chris Cohen, who left to join Southampton with Nathan Jones this week, for his help during his rehab, labelling the ex-Nottingham Forest defender as the ‘best coach’ he has ever worked with.

He said: “We tried to get me back but I broke down and it was a really tough period.

“Chris Cohen really helped me, the best coach I've worked with.

“He really helped me in that time when I was down, he really kicked me on and thankfully I've hopefully repaid the staff and players for that.

“It’s not motivational, I’m always motivated, it’s just you can get down, especially when you see the boys out there.

"You know you can mentally do it, it’s just physically at times.

“My body wasn’t letting me do that and it was hard to take, as that’s not really happened to me before and hopefully now we can kick on from here.”

Although he is just getting to the stage where he can feature regularly for the Hatters, the midfielder will now have another month off due to the season breaking for the World Cup in Qatar.

Despite not being ideal, Berry knows it’s something that will benefit the squad though, who have had an exhausting schedule in the last few months, saying: “That’s the thing, I feel like I’m in now, but all I can do is play well in the next game and then freshen up again and really kick on the second part of the season.

“If we can put ourselves in a little play-off position, push on from there, that would really, really lift the fans and lift everyone, because I feel like we’re definitely capable.

“It’s non-stop really, Saturday is going to be our sixth game in two weeks which is crazy as the boys have been working hard recently.”

Finishing off the first part of the campaign at Kenilworth Road, Luton will be looking to record only their third victory from 11 outings in front of their own fans, as Berry added: “We haven’t been getting the results at home, but it’ll come, it’ll come.

“It’s a great place to play for us, other teams don't like it, so we’ll pick up there again.”