Hatters chief hopeful after injury forces Luton's leading scorer off

Luton boss Jack Wilshere is hopeful that the injury picked up by striker Nahki Wells isn’t too bad after he was forced off against Doncaster Rovers on Tuesday night.

The 36-year-old went into the game having scored three times in his last four matches, topping the scoring charts with eight goals under his belt so far, although played slightly deeper in midweek due to Jordan Clark missing out, with Callum Marshall recalled in the striking role. Wells impressed in his new berth, twice playing in the Northern Ireland international during the first half, as he missed the target narrowly once, and then saw his low cross cleared away before Jake Richards could tap in at the back post.

However, just before the break, the Bermuda international held his hamstring when crossing the ball on the right, and having received treatment, had to walk gingerly off, replaced by Tudor Mendel. Asked for an update after the 3-1 victory, Wilshere said: “I don’t know what it is, but I think if you remember last year, Wycombe away where he went down and we thought ‘oh no,’ and it turned out it wasn’t that bad. He was looking after himself, he’s experienced, he knows his body, so we trust him with that. Hopefully it’s the case where it’s not too bad and we will have to wait and see.”

On his slight tweak to Wells’ role on the night, Wilshere continued: “That was the idea at times for Nahki to drop low, sometimes play higher with Marshy, and I thought it was working quite nicely. Nahki’s an intelligent player that knows when to drop in the spaces, When they were trying to be aggressive, he was the one dropping down and the centre backs didn’t want to go in with him. So we got a little bit of joy with that and I thought Jake did that really well second half.”

Meanwhile, asked just why the long-serving Clark was missing, one of two changes made from the 2-1 win over Leicester City at the weekend, with Richards also replacing Mendel, Wilshere stated: “Clicker was ill. He’s given a lot since he came back from his jaw injury. It was a late decision for us, he was ready to go yesterday and then kind of knowing the importance of Clicks and what he brings to the team, we didn’t want to push him through that, so hopefully he recovers.

"When we talk about having consistency and finding a consistent team, it helps the players coming into it that they’ve sat on the bench for the last two games watching the team fight and give everything. They fight and land on second balls and are really doing, I call it the simple things, well.

"It’s not necessarily simple things as they’re not always easy to do, but if you focus on that, then slowly find your way in a game or build your confidence in a game. We’ve got players with quality and for a player to come into that I think it helps, and they deserve that, so I’m happy for them.”