Hatters defender reveals he was advised to have surgery on knee injury in May

Town defender Teden Mengi has revealed that he turned down the opportunity to have surgery on his knee in the summer after it was revealed he will now be missing for a significant period of time due to finally deciding to go under the knife yesterday.

The 22-year-old was one of two absentees from the Luton side who drew 1-1 against Swansea City at Kenilworth Road on Saturday afternoon, along with midfielder Shandon Baptiste, as manager Rob Edwards stated afterwards that the centre half would be out for a number of months having suffered the problem while undertaking a passing drill in training.

The Hatters chief explained: “Teden’s was a real sort of freak one. He’s hurt his knee just doing a passing drill, just passing the ball. Unfortunately, he’s had an operation this morning, so he’s going to be out for a number of months now. Of course we wish him well. It’s incredibly frustrating at the moment, just another blow when we’re on the ropes.”

After making 32 Premier League appearances last term, Mengi, who has also won two England U21 caps since arriving at Kenilworth Road just over 12 months ago, had started 14 Championship games this term, missing five matches, including a period of just under a month between the Sheffield United defeat and West Bromwich Albion draw.

Once it was made public that the ex-Manchester United youngster would now be sidelined for the foreseeable future, Mengi took to Instagram to say: “Dear Hatters, I wanted to provide an update on my fitness. May 19th - Fulham at home I suffered a knee injury and I was advised that surgical action should be taken but the decision was ultimately left in my hands and I chose against it being the fighter that I am and always trying my best to give 100% for my teammates and my club.

"There comes a point where it starts to become dangerous so I have opted to take surgical action. I can assure you I will do everything in my power to get back to 100% and flying in Jesus’ Name #coyh.”

Meanwhile, in an extra video post, Mengi added: “I’ve been battling on but there comes a point where you can’t carry on anymore, so I’ve had my surgery now. The surgery was a success, thanks very much Andy Williams and the team, so now I’m on my road to recovery and I can assure you I will do everything I can and everything it takes to get back safely and get back to my best form as soon as possible.”