Luton defender ruled out Port Vale trip as Hatters boss gives injury update

Hatters defender Teden Mengi has been ruled out of tomorrow’s trip to League One basement side Port Vale due to the muscle injury he suffered against Plymouth Argyle on Tuesday night, while there remain doubts over top scorer Gideon Kodua and Mads Andersen too.

The 23-year-old was forced off just after the half-hour mark in midweek, hobbling down the touch-line having received treatment on the field after pulling up when trying to beat ex-Luton forward Bim Pepple to the ball. Mengi wasn’t the only player to be forced off in the Vertu Trophy quarter-final 2-1 success too either, as both Kodua and Andersen didn’t reappear for the second period. Asked for an update on the trio, speaking this afternoon, boss Jack Wilshere said: “Teden’s still out, we’re still awaiting some tests with him.

"When it’s a muscular injury like that, you have to give it a chance to settle down a little bit before you scan it and get the full picture. He won’t be available for tomorrow and the other two were impact. They were still a little bit sore yesterday, they did a bit of training today, so we’ll see if they’re all right. We’ll give them another 24 hours to recover and then make a decision on them then.”

Forward Devante Cole, who started the season at Port Vale, still the Valiants’ top scorer with eight goals from 23 matches, before heading to Kenilworth Road in the January transfer window, could be available after he wasn’t in the squad on Tuesday evening, as Wilshere continued: “He picked up a knock against Burton when he came on. He trained today and we’ll have to assess him before tomorrow. Obviously he’s really keen to be involved, and we’ll have to have a conversation with the medical team to see where he’s at. Nothing serious but we’ll have to see how he is tomorrow.”

There was good news regarding both midfielder Liam Walsh and striker Ali Al-Hamadi though, with Walsh having not played since the 1-0 loss at Huddersfield Town a month ago due to a shoulder problem and illness, while Al-Hamadi has sat out the last two matches. Wilshere stated: “Liam Walsh has been training. We wanted to be careful with him because we know how important he is to us and he’s been training now four, five days, so he’s in a better place. Again it’s a decision I have to make, he’ll be in the squad, but let’s see how much he can play.

“He’s (Al-Hamadi) back in training, he’s available. He was out for a little bit longer than we expected as he got a knock which was nothing serious. I said before Saturday that if the game was a day later then he would have probably been available, which he then went out to start training, but still had a little bit of discomfort. So we gave him a few more days which meant he wasn’t ready for Tuesday, but he’s trained the latter part of the week and he seems to be okay, so he’s another one we’ll assess before tomorrow.”

Finally, giving another update on both Hakeem Odoffin and Sverre Sandal, Wilshere added: “It’s a bit soon for Sandal, but Hakeem is back in training. He’s trained now for four, five days so he’ll be in the squad. Again he’s someone we’ll have to manage with his minutes but it’s really good to have him back because of the energy he brings. We’ll try to manage his minutes to get him up to full speed, but it might be a little bit too soon for him.”