Harford hopeful that Brighton striker Connolly will feature for Luton

The 19-year-old, who has scored 17 goals in all competitions so far, is currently sidelined with a hamstring injury suffered in early January.

He agreed a loan move to Kenilworth Road until May on transfer deadline day, and tweeted this week: “Been a long couple of months but nearly there.”

When asked if was hoping to be able to select him for the Hatters in the near future, Harford said: “We hope so, but it’s an addition to the squad, another player for us, another striker.

“We don’t know what’s going to happen over the next four or five weeks in terms of injuries, suspensions, so it was a call that we made.

“We knew he was injured, but we knew he’d be fit and well soon, so we’ll just wait and see.

“We think he’ll be training in the next seven to 10 days, obviously he will need some match time, so hopefully Brighton will get him some match time in one of their U23 games.

“Then we’ll introduce him to our squad, hopefully that’s the plan.”