Luton expect key duo to return against Stevenage

Luton will have goalkeeper Josh Keeley and in-form attacker Gideon Kodua available for selection when they host Stevenage in their League One encounter at Kenilworth Road tomorrow.

The pair were both missing with minor knocks when Town travelled to Exeter City for the 1-0 defeat on New Year’s Day, as Keeley’s run of 23 successive League One outings after moving to Bedfordshire in the summer was ended, with Kodua, who had scored five goals in his last six third tier appearances, also a surprising absentee from the teamsheet.

However, with the Hatters’ game against Doncaster Rovers a few days later called off due to a frozen pitch, it has allowed the pair that bit of extra time to recover as both are expected to return to the squad against Boro this weekend. Boss Jack Wilshere said: “Josh is back, Josh would have been back for Doncaster. He picked up just a little knock and when you have a number two like Sheasy (James Shea) who’s got loads and loads of experience of stepping in, probably in every season he’s been here, it makes that decision a little bit easier, but Josh is fit and available.

“Gideon was touch and go for the Exeter game and we just felt that given the output he had given in the last two games it wasn’t right to put him in that position where he could potentially become an injury problem for us. So he probably did benefit from missing that game and then the Doncaster game being off, it’s given him a little bit more time to recove, and hopefully we’ll see him fresh on the weekend.”

With the injured trio of Hakeem Odoffin, Izzy Jones and Jake Richards all not making the trip to Devon either, then giving an update on when he hopes they will finally be fit for selection, Wilshere continued: “Hakeem is still recovering, Izzy is on the grass, there’s some good news with Izzy and he shouldn’t be too long.

"Jake Richards trained for the first time today so we’re getting some players back as well as being in the January window. At the moment it’s looking good and we’ll do everything we can to try and get them back as quickly as possible. I think Jake will probably be soon. He’s not available for tomorrow, that will be too soon, but hopefully not too long.”

Although Town wanted to be back in action as soon as possible following their disappointing showing when beaten by the Grecians, having their trip to South Yorkshire called off wasn’t the end of the world for Wilshere either though, as it meant his side didn’t have to go again in what would have been a fourth game in 10 days over the gruelling festive period. He added: “At the time we were there it was a little bit annoying, especially after the Exeter result, as we had another away game where we wanted to put things right and show a different side to us away from home.

"But probably in hindsight yes (it was a bonus). With the amount of games you have in such a short period, then naturally the players were tired. We were in Exeter, then we had to travel to Doncaster and we still had to do that. After that we had a few days where we could recover, the pitches here were frozen so we gave the players a few days off, so hopefully we can see that freshness this weekend.”