Hatters boss hopes Newcastle United loanee isn't out for too long

Luton boss Jack Wilshere doesn’t expect summer signing Harrison Ashby to be missing for too long despite sitting out both of the Hatters’ last two friendly matches.

​The 24-year-old moved to Kenilworth Road on a season-long loan deal from Premier League outfit Newcastle United recently, playing the opening 45 minutes of Town’s 5-0 victory over Southern League Premier Central side Hitchin Town, catching the eye with some rampaging raids on the right hand side.

Ashby then didn’t feature when Luton were held to a 2-2 draw by League Two outfit Barnet at the Hive, as although he headed out to Spain with his new team-mates for the week-long training camp in Murcia, wasn’t involved once more as the Hatters beat Al Kholood 2-0 on Saturday thanks to goals from Liam Walsh and Mads Andersen.

Speaking to the club’s official website about the absence of the full back, who has had stints at Swansea City, QPR and Bradford City during his time with the Magpies, picking up a thigh injury which hampered his time with the Bantams last term, Wilshere told the club’s official website: “Harrison hurt his ankle maybe five days ago now when training and at the time we weren't sure, but he responded really well.

"First of all the injury wasn't as bad as we thought it might be, but he's now back on the grass, he's training with the medical team and hopefully won’t be too long. We wanted him to come away with the group to get that connection with his team-mates and you've probably seen him around the places and know him as a character. I saw one of the things he said, after five minutes he felt he'd been here for five years. He's definitely like that, so we wanted to keep him around it.”