Hamstring injury rules Luton defender Osho out for the rest of the season

Luton boss Nathan Jones has confirmed that defender Gabe Osho will miss the rest of the season due to a hamstring injury.

The 23-year-old suffered the problem just before half time during Town’s 2-1 defeat at Middlesbrough last month, as he fell awkwardly after a collision with Matt Crooks and had to be helped from the pitch.

Jones admitted that having to play the former Reading youngster, who has also been deployed in the holding role at times too, more than he wanted due to injuries elsewhere in the squad had been a reason behind the unfortunate news, saying: “Osho will be out for the season because of his hamstring injury.

“It’s a real blow, because of the relentless schedule and because of injuries to other midfield players, he had to play more than we would have liked.

“When people say ‘we change the team,’ if you don’t do that and we play like we do and demand like we do, they are going to pick up injuries and then they are going to be out for longer.

"When we change the team it’s not because we want to tinker, if we could play the team we knew was going to win the game, same eleven every week, then all right you want to do it, but you can’t do that in the Championship.

"It’s where you need a squad, competitiveness, a humble group that continue to work hard together and that challenge each other, that’s what we have.

"Gabe was unfortunate because he had to go Saturday, then Wednesday against Chelsea which was a massive shift and then he had to do it again at Middlesbrough, and that’s invariably what got him injured.”

Although Osho won’t play again this term, missing the final seven matches and also Town’s potential play-off challenge as well, the ex-Royal has been one of the finds of the season for the Hatters, making 16 league starts, and 26 appearances in total.

He began 10 of the 11 fixtures prior to his injury and was looking like a fully fledged Championship player, as Jones added: “He’s been outstanding, absolutely outstanding, for his first full season in Championship football as a first team player.

“Last year he did really well, had a brief loan at Yeovil to get him game time and then was excellent at Rochdale (on loan).

"We had so many opportunities to loan him out this year, a lot of big clubs wanted to take him, but we believed he could play.

"We told him to keep being patient, keep being patient and he’s shown that he can be excellent in a number of positions and we’re delighted he’s our player.”