Luton hoping that LuaLua can provide a 'spark' during battle to stay up

Luton chief Nathan Jones is hoping that attacker Kazenga LuaLua could provide the ‘spark’ required for the Hatters as they look to cling on to their Championship status in the next two weeks.

The 29-year-old hasn’t featured yet since the season restarted again after lockdown due to a knee injury, and was watching on from the stands as Luton drew 1-1 with Barnsley on Tuesday night.

However, he could be available when Town head to Huddersfield tomorrow evening, as Jones said: “Kaz is back with us so that’s really good as he can really provide a spark if you need it.

"We’re going to need everyone as we’ve said and Kaz is no exception.”

Holding midfielder Glen Rea has also missed the last three games after picking up a thigh problem in the warm-up at Leeds United, with his absence keenly felt by Jones.

On his chances of recovering in time for the trip to the John Smith's Stadium, Town's boss continued: “We hope so, because he's been a big miss.

"He's the real security and he allows me to go a little bit more expansive knowing that I have that steel in there, and he’s the best we've got in that position.

"So he's been a miss for us.”

Although Luton have played five games in 18 days and still have four more to go in under two weeks, the rest of the squad barring Eunan O’Kane and Brendan Galloway are good to go, as Jones said: “We’ve got some tired bodies, but that’s what happens.

"I thought the energy levels were much, much better on Tuesday than on Saturday, so as we’ve maintained from the start, you’re preparing, you play, you recover and maintain.

"There’s nothing really elaborate in training, they're in as good as place as they can be in terms of physically.

"We’ve given them some down time, we’re training a little bit later today so that we can travel and be ready for the game."

One thing that Jones won't risk though is injuring any of his players through their extended workload, adding: "We work on that, we've always had a real good availability rate at every club we've been at.

"Here we had a 90 odd percent availability, so it's always been decent to be fair and it's such a sport science based thing.

"We listen to players, we sign the right characters and then you can trust them, what they say, if people are tired.

"We monitor them every day, or you just take them off, there's no point flogging a tired horse as you're just going to get inured.”