Jones to miss Stags clash while Luton centre half won't play again this season

Luton boss Jack Wilshere has stated that Izzy Jones won’t feature against Mansfield Town tomorrow, and is also a doubt for Tuesday night’s trip to Rotherham United, also confirming that defender Teden Mengi is definitely out for the season.

The 26-year-old, who has been playing as a wingback recently, picked up a hamstring problem early on during the Hatters’ 3-1 Vertu Trophy final victory over Stockport County at Wembley on Sunday, although valiantly carried on and completed 87 minutes before having to hobble off. He was absent for Tuesday night’s 2-1 victory which relegated Northampton Town, and has now been ruled out of the trip to the One Call Stadium as well.

Asked if there was a concern that Jones’ campaign was done, Wilshere said: “There always is a doubt with hamstrings, but what I think is important, I have a saying, treat the man not the scan. The scan was actually quite good, but it works the same even if it is a good scan. He’ll be out tomorrow and probably Tuesday, but then we’ve got good medical team. They know the importance of these next couple of weeks that we’ve got coming up and we’ll be looking to push everyone.”

One player who won’t feature again this term is centre half Teden Mengi, who suffered a bad hamstring injury during the 2-1 Vertu Trophy quarter-final victory over Plymouth Argyle on February 24. When it happened, Wilshere stated he retained a slight glimmer of hope that the centre half might play again, but that has now been put to bed, with the manager saying: “He’s out for the season.

"Teds is back, he had his surgery and had a couple of weeks away. He was in maybe three days a week while the wound healed and he wasn’t very mobile at that point, but he’s now back in full time. He’s working in the gym, he’s around the group which will be good for him, but he won’t play again this season.”

With Luton playing again for the third time in just six days tomorrow, as they also head to the Millers on Tuesday night and host Barnsley next weekend, asked if managing players’ minutes will come into it again at Mansfield, Wilshere added: “We have to think about that of course because we want players fit and available for the whole season.

"I know people will say there’s only a few games left, but they’re really important games and we have to weigh up the risk of, this is an important game and we know that, but we also want players available for Tuesday. At this point in the season as well it’s probably the right time to take more calculated risks that you would earlier in the season, and players will have to go again, and they can do it.

"It’s a mentality thing in my opinion now, third game in a week, we know players can do it, know players can push through it. I think about the Stockport game recently where I thought we were very good, especially in the first half and that was the third game in a week, so it’s a mentality thing. The player have to be ready, have to understand what we’re going into and produce a physical performance and they’ll be able to do that.”