Hatters defender ruled out of crunch clash against Forest as on-loan Arsenal midfielder unlikely to feature

Luton defender Gabe Osho has been ruled out of tomorrow’s massive Premier League home game against fellow relegation rivals Nottingham Forest, with midfielder Sambi Lokonga still not expected to feature either.

Osho, who has since had to withdraw from the Nigeria squad for their matches against Ghana and Mali after winning a first call-up to the Super Eagles squad last week, missed Wednesday night’s 4-3 defeat to AFC Bournemouth after suffering a knee injury during the closing stages of the 1-1 draw with Crystal Palace on Saturday. With Town having a week off after hosting Nuno Espirito Santo’s side due to the upcoming international break, Hatters boss Rob Edwards is looking to get him back in time for the trip to Tottenham Hotspur on March 30 though, as he said: “I hope so, this rest now will be good for him.

"He’s still in pain today, so not going to be good for tomorrow. There's about five centre backs out and there’s not many teams in the Premier League who would be able to cope with that, so it is difficult for us, but again I have to focus on the group we’ve got available to us and we trust them to go and get a result.”

Lokonga meanwhile has been out of action since going off at half time in the 4-1 loss to Liverpool last month forced to sit out fixtures with Manchester City, Aston Villa, Crystal Palace and the Cherries. With the Arsenal loanee absent, it has meant the serious knee injury suffered by Zimbabwean international Marvelous Nakamba has been even more keenly felt in recent weeks. However, Edwards was at pains not to blame that or his side's crippling injury list, Luton without eight first-teamers this weekend, for their recent run of defeats, adding: “Sambi’s getting there, hopefully he is (closer).

“You’re going to miss Marv, he’s been an outstanding player for us, hugely. Without him we wouldn’t have got promoted last year. no doubt about it and then earlier in the season he was playing really well as well. So he was always going to be a big miss, but there’s eight or nine senior players who are out that could all be starters for us. Sambi’s been a big miss in that position (holding midfielder) as well since Marv’s been out. Marv came out and it was almost simultaneously that Sambi was available again and we probably didn’t miss Marv as much as we would have done. But again I don’t want to go on about it, as I don’t want to make any excuses.”