'Important' Luton defender could be fit to feature at Mansfield Town

Hatters boss Jack Wilshere could welcome back defender Hakeem Odoffin for tomorrow’s trip to Mansfield Town.

The former Rotherham United player of the season had started seven successive games for the club, including Sunday’s Vertu Trophy final success against Stockport County at Wembley, until missing Tuesday night’s 2-1 victory over Northampton Town, with what was deemed a slight knock by the manager in his post-match press conference, as with Izzy Jones also out, it saw Joe Johnson and Nigel Lonwijk take their places in the hosts’ back-line.

Speaking this afternoon, then giving an update on Odoffin’s availability for the contest at the One Call Stadium, Wilshere said: “He trained today for the first time this week, so we’ll make a decision on him. He’s okay, it’s probably really good that he missed a game and he’s fresher than he would have been if he did play. We know what we’ve got coming up and this is a really important game for us, so we’ve got decisions to make.”

Since Odoffin recovered from the various injuries that had stunted his season at Kenilworth Road to become a first team regular, then his importance to the Hatters certainly hasn’t gone unnoticed to supporters, already a big hit amongst the fanbase, Luton not losing a single game of the eight he has started. Wilshere, who took over the club in October, always thought that the defender would have a big impact on the team’s fortunes, as he continued: “Yes, first of all as a character I noticed straight away the type of character he was when I got here.

"He was obviously injured and a lot of the time you can see how a player or person is by the way the players respond to them and how much they care about them. When he started to come back you could see in training that he’s the sort of guy, he’s a leader, he’s an organiser, which we need. I always knew that he would be important, I didn’t know where when he first came back. I think about the Huddersfield game, he played at right back, and the Bolton game he played at right back as well. He can still help us at right back but he’s probably played his best football in the middle and he’s really important.”

It was the same for Town skipper Kal Naismith too who was quickly a fan of the 28-year-old when he joined in the summer, watching Odoffin go on to make a name for himself with some wonderful last-ditch clearances, against Northampton on his debut, and then none more so when he hacked the ball away at Wembley on Sunday just as Stockport’s forwards looked destined to pounce and make it 2-2 following James Shea’s wonderful save.

The captain said: “He’s been incredible and I knew he would be a big player for us. I got to know him early on when he initially signed and his leadership qualities and him as a person, his calmness and his assurance. I was really looking forward to playing with him and it broke my heart at the start when he was injured, then coming back and getting reinjured, as I went through stuff like that myself in my career maybe three years ago, signing for a new club and you’re desperate to hit the ground running and it doesn't happen.

"I always told him, just get back fit, I know you’re going to play a big part, even if you’re not fit, just being around the changing room, and he always did that, he was always having a positive impact on the team even when he wasn't playing. So to see him now getting his flowers and the fans to see him play and how big an impact we knew he could have, and is having, it's brilliant for Haks.”