Luton boss reveals why defender came off at half time against Mansfield

Luton boss Jack Wilshere admitted that there were no injury concerns regarding centre half Mads Andersen after taking him off during the interval against Mansfield Town on Saturday.

The 28-year-old has only recently come back from a foot injury which saw him miss six games, beginning the last four matches for Town, including the 3-1 victory over Stockport County at Wembley at the weekend. He then completed his fourth 90 minutes on Wednesday night in the 2-1 win over Northampton, before starting again at the One Call Stadium, playing alongside Hakeem Odoffin in the centre of the visitors’ back four.

However, the Hatters struggled hugely in the first 40 minutes, unable to cope with the Stags attackers, conceding twice to Jon Russell before the half hour mark, as one of Town’s back-line bar Odoffin covered themselves in any glory. Although Kasey Palmer pulled one back late in the interval, Luton changed ends 2-1 behind, with Andersen not appearing for the second period, Joe Johnson on in his place, moving to left back with Naismith partnering Odoffin.

Asked if there was an injury to the Danish centre half, Wilshere said afterwards: “No, Mads was tired. Mads has grown a lot with his ability to play two, three games a week this season, but when he missed that little spell with his foot injury, it probably set him back a little bit. We’ll see how he is, assess him, there’s probably a few players we have to assess and wrap up until Tuesday, but I’m confident when Tuesday comes they’ll be ready to stand up and fight and we’ve got that.”

Another change prior to kick-off saw top scorer Jordan Clark miss out, who having begun the last 22 league games in a row for Town, then like Izzy Jones, appears to be out of Tuesday night’s trip to Rotherham as well, with Wilshere continuing: “Clicks has got a calf injury. He picked that up on Wednesday, that’s why we took him off at the end to try and protect it a little bit. It looked like it worked as it’s not as bad as we first thought, but he’ll probably miss Tuesday.”

Meanwhile, on Johnson, who had a good spell in the side at the turn of the year, has had to bide his time recently, dropped to the bench and then not even in the squad for the trip to AFC Wimbledon on Easter Monday, or the Vertu Trophy final either. He did start in the week against Northampton Town, his 20th appearance of the campaign, and discussing his comeback against the Cobblers, Wilshere said: “I thought he did okay.

“The challenge to Joe, even when he was playing and was playing really well was to be consistent and more consistent, keep doing it. Then he had a little bit of a difficult spell, but it’s the same message for every player, when you’re out of the squad, you’re never too far away. It’s different in the Championship and the Premier League when you’re allowed nine on the bench. I feel if you’re out of that squad then you probably are quite far away from the team, but at this level when you only allowed six outfield players on the bench then everyone has to be ready.

"I was happy that Joe stepped up and he came into the team. The team obviously won, that’s always the challenge as well when you make changes to the team and I’ve been there as a player when you come in, you probably feel more responsibility. He had some good things, things he needs to improve, but we know that with Joe and we’re working with him all the time.”

During his time out of the side, then asked what he could glean from watching the likes of Naismith in his position, Wilshere added: “I think his leadership qualities for sure, his ability to deal with adversity and the resilience he has. I’ve said it a lot, you only really get that when you go through some tough times and I would say Joe has gone through some tough times earlier in his career. So he can look at Kal and he’s a different type of full back to Kal, we ask him to do different things, but in terms of resilience and leadership qualities, yes.”