Jones disappointed that Luton find themselves 'stretched' with injuries at such an early stage

Hatters boss Nathan Jones is increasingly disappointed that his squad has already become ‘stretched’ in just the first month of the season.

Last term, Luton saw their hopes of achieving play-off success take a huge hit, as decimated by injuries which left them without a number of key players, they were beaten 2-1 over both legs by Huddersfield Town.

Although forward Elijah Adebayo is back and leading the line once more, Town went into Saturday’s match against Preston without a number of players who would have been in Jones’ first team thoughts.

With Dion Pereira, Henri Lansbury and Carlos Mendes Gomes all picking up knocks in midweek as well, it meant that he had two youngsters in Elliot Thorpe and Louie Watson on the bench, with a lack of real attacking options to call on, as he said: “From Tuesday (when he made 11 changes for the Carabao Cup), I’ve been pillaged for changing the team but we’ve lost five players from the team, literally five players that started the game can’t play this weekend.

“We lost Harry Cornick yesterday (Friday) in training.

"He’s fully fit going into the training session and then he just felt something in the session, so that ruled him out.

“We’re having a frustrating time really, as we’ve got big players, Harry, Fred (Onyedinma), Alfie Doughty, (Luke) Berry, (Pelly) Ruddock, all these are out at the minute.

“Obviously Ruddock has been long term, but we’re really missing some gamechangers, some pace, some athleticism, and that’s what we’re looking forward to getting back.

“They’re big players for us in terms of quality, pace, power, aggression, everything, so I’m sure we’re going to be fine it’s just a frustrating period.

“We’re stretched again and we shouldn’t be stretched on the second week of the normal season, so that’s the frustrating thing for us.”

On whether any of those missing will be available for Luton when they head to Bristol City tonight, Jones added: “We hope so, but we’re taking it day to day.

"What we’re more worried about the minute is anyone else (getting injured), and a lot of stuff is happening at the minute.

"People are finishing games no problems and then I don’t see them for the next game, so it’s a frustrating time for us at the minute which we have to rectify and we will.”