Luton chief wasn't prepared to risk injured trio against City

Alfie Doughty missed yesterday's goalless draw with Birmingham

Luton boss Nathan Jones wasn’t prepared to risk injured trio Luke Berry, Reece Burke and Alfie Doughty against Birmingham City yesterday.

Doughty, a summer signing, from Stoke City, had impressed during the pre-season campaign, starting last weekend’s final friendly against West Ham United that ended in a 1-1 draw.

However, the 22-year-old, who missed large chunks of 2020-21 season with a hamstring tear when at Charlton, also having his loan spell with Cardiff curtailed by injuries last term, wasn’t involved against the Blues, joining Burke and Berry in missing out.

Asked how they were, Jones said: “It’s just muscular things that they’ve picked up that we couldn’t test them today.

"We could have risked Reece Burke, but we didn’t.

"Doughty we’ve got to be very careful with as he’s picked up injuries before and we’ve got to really build him up.

"Then Luke Berry again is someone who’s done really well in pre-season in patches, but we’ve got to be very careful with him as we have to build him up.

"But we’ve got a lot to come back, Pelly’s (Mpanzu) not too far away, so we’ve got a real strong squad.

"People like Admiral Muskwe and Carlos (Mendes Gomes) weren’t involved today so that shows the strength we have.”