Luton boss hopes on-loan Newcastle defender's injury isn't too bad
Ashby off with a groin issue against Orient
Hatters boss Jack Wilshere is keeping his fingers crossed that summer signing Harrison Ashby won’t be out for too long, having had to go off during Saturday’s 1-1 draw against Leyton Orient with a groin injury.
The 24-year-old Newcastle United loanee had been starting his second league in game succession and three matches from four in all competitions, having begun the 2-0 Carabao Cup loss at Chelsea as well, proceeding to enjoy a starring role during the 2-0 victory over Stockport County on Wednesday night, flying forward time and time again on the flank to deservedly take the man of the match award.
Remaining in the right wingback role, there didn’t appear to be too much wrong in the opening 20 minutes of the contest, as he went racing away once more early on, losing his footing at just the wrong moment he made his way into the box, then just 60 seconds later, he went down by the corner flag as the ball went out for an Orient throw, and immediately called for the physios.
Having received some treatment, it was clear he couldn’t continue, as Ashby hobbled off for academy graduate Harry Fox, and discussing the issue afterwards, Wilshere said: “I didn’t see it straight away. I turned away and straight away Powelly (Chris Powell) said, ‘he’s done his groin’, which is not a good thing when you pull up like that. Let’s hope he’s okay for us, but also for him, because he did really well on Wednesday, and he brings so much to the team, we’ll have to see how he is.”
Ashby has struggled with injuries over the years, with hamstring and muscle problems curtailing his ability to perform, one that blighted his loan spell at Swansea City in 2023-24 and a thigh issue last season too, meaning he has made just 33 league starts since turning pro in November 2019, and 86 outings in total. The wingback now joins a lengthening injury list for Luton, which includes Jordan Clark, Shayden Morris, Benny Benagr, Sverre Sandal and Jayden Luker in being sidelined.
On having so many out with only a month of the campaign gone, Wilshere continued: “That’s League One, that’s football, we review everything as always. I think we’ve been unlucky with a few, Clicker’s one is obviously a freak accident which you never want to be missing a player like Clicks, how important he is. Then a few muscle injuries which are frustrating, and we have to review that.”
Wilshere made three changes ahead of the contest, Luton’s fifth game in 15 days, to try and prevent any injuries from the punishing schedule, as Jake Richards, Gideon Kodua and Izzy Jones coming in for Kasey Palmer, Dan Gore and Benagr. On his selection decisions, the boss added: “I loved everyone’s performance on Wednesday, we could have done so many things better that we spoke about, but the attitude, the commitment, the energy, the desire to run, we work really hard and we want to be able to repeat that.
"You see in the league the results and everyone’s chasing a bit of consistency. Consistency doesn’t mean that you perform perfectly every time but there’s some certain behaviours that you have to be able to do over and over and over again and that’s hard when you have a schedule like we’ve had, so that was the reason. I loved their performance Wednesday, I loved so much of today and on another day we take the three points.”