Hatters can welcome trio back for Premier League trip to Newcastle United

Luton boss Rob Edwards will be able to welcome the trio of Issa Kabore, Jacob Brown and Teden Mengi to his squad for the Hatters top flight trip to Newcastle United tomorrow.

Kabore has returned from his time away with Burkina Faso at the Africa Cup of Nations held in the Ivory Coast, the Stallions losing their last 16 match 2-1 to Mali on Tuesday afternoon, as Town’s on-loan Manchester City wingback completed his fourth 90 minutes of the competition, winning a third penalty as well when his cross was handled by Boubacar Kiki Kouyate for Aston Villa's Bertrand Traore to score from the spot. Meanwhile, Brown is back from a knee injury which has kept him out of the last two matches, with Mengi’s hip problem that saw his run of 15 consecutive starts ended in Tuesday’s 4-0 victory Brighton having cleared up as well.

Discussing his squad, Edwards said: “Issa Kabore is back from the AFCON, we’ve got Jacob Brown available again, Teden Mengi is available as well so that's really good. He (Mengi) was really close the other day, we gave him as much time as possible, but it was right not to take the risk. Being able to bring Gabe Osho in is not a bad one for us is it either and they performed really, really well, T just makes us stronger going into this weekend. We’re getting there now, Mads (Andersen) is still missing, but other than the two longer term ones (Tom Lockyer and Marvelous Nakamba), it’s just Mads, so that’s great, really, really good for us.”

With Mengi and Kabore available, it means that Edwards has some decisions to make in his defensive line-up as Reece Burke completed back-to-back 90 minutes for the first time in almost two years in midweek, while Chiedozie Ogbene was superb in the wingback role, scoring a second Premier League goal of the season as well.

It’s how Edwards wants it to be though, adding: “I’d certainly rather that than the other way where we’re searching round thinking ‘flipping heck, who do we play here? We’re struggling.’ I need that and they’ve all shown their real value for a long period of time now. It gives us a bit more flexibility, gives us a bit more back up as well, if we need to make an adjustment or a change during games. That’s what we want, but we’ve had this from day one, since we’ve come in, we’ve been able to change that back-line and whoever has come in has always performed really, really well.”