Luton midfielder in with a chance of making Lions clash but Town winger is still out

Luton might be able to welcome back midfielder Lamine Fanne to their squad for tomorrow afternoon’s Championship clash against Millwall.

The 20-year-old was signed from Swedish top flight club AIK in the summer, but could only feature for the Hatters from January onwards. He was named in the starting line-up for the 2-1 defeat at QPR in Rob Edwards’ final game in charge, before staying in the side as Town were knocked out of the FA Cup, beaten 2-0 by Nottingham Forest.

However, he went off just moments after the interval with an ankle injury at the City Ground, and has missed both of new manager Matt Bloomfield’s first two matches against Preston North End and Oxford United. On whether he’s back to face the Lions, the Luton chief said: “Lamine’s getting very, very close. We need to have a discussion with the medical department this afternoon about whether he’s done enough this week to be in the matchday squad or whether he’s not quite there, but he’s very, very close.

"I know he's been a good investment for the football club and we want to use him when we can, but we’ll have discussion and just go over one or two bits. I like to let training on a Friday just die down, any knocks and niggles, make sure we make the right choices on a Friday afternoon, so we’ll go and discuss it with them, but he’s been back out on the grass Lamine, and he’s a boy of real big potential so we’ll look include him as and when is right.”

With Fanne playing in the fifth tier of Spanish football for Constància a few years back before moving to AIK, he helped the side reach the Europa League ahead of his switch to Kenilworth Road. Discussing his journey so far, Bloomfield continued: “It’s incredible and I think if you look at some of the players I’ve worked with in the past, coming from non-league in England and going through the levels very, very quickly, potential is hard to spot at times but when you get one that you’re really excited about, you have to give them lots of time and lots of work to improve.

"So it’s a really impressive and an incredible journey that he’s been on so far. We have high hopes that we can keep that going with him. He hopefully will be really important to us, but we need him out on the pitch. We’ve had a couple of nice little chats but I need to know more about it and get to work with him and I’m looking forward to doing so as I know that the football club thinks highly of him and he’s someone that I’m excited to work with.”

Although Fanne might be back, there is still no news on when winger Tahith Chong can return yet, the midfielder absent for Luton’s last three matches with a hamstring injury. Bloomfield continued: “Tahith’s not ready yet. Again, I don’t know the exact timescale, I’m not trying to take you off the scent here, but he’s not yet. He’s not back out on the grass yet, but he’s feeling good. I’ve just spoken to him in the gym, he’s working hard, feeling good and I’ll leave that to Murph (Danny Murphy, head of medical) and the guys to guide him through that. That’s not my place to input, as and when they’re back out on the grass we can look forward to welcoming him in the group as soon as possible.”

Asked if there were any other injuries picked up at the Kassam Stadium on Tuesday night, Bloomfield added: “Nothing has been reported, the boys have worked really hard. We’re trying to be a little bit cautious this week as well because a few of them have not played as many minutes recently as what it needs to be to have that real, cumulative loading, but we’ve been out on the training ground, they’ve been working hard and we’re ready to go.

“We’ve had two really good days, we had Wednesday off and been back in training Thursday, Friday. The boys have worked hard, had two good meetings, we’re trying to improve things as quickly as possible in the group. They’re working incredibly hard, being really diligent in their work, so we’re really pleased with what’s been going on so far.”