Mackail-Smith a doubt for Crawley trip

Hatters striker Craig Mackail-Smith is a doubt for Saturday’s FA Cup trip to Crawley Town.
Craig Mackail-SmithCraig Mackail-Smith
Craig Mackail-Smith

The forward who has suffered from a hamstring injury in recent weeks, missed the 2-1 defeat to Plymouth, although was a substitute against Dagenham & Redbridge on Sunday, playing the final 25 minutes.

Boss John Still said: “He’s just got a very slight pull that probably has improved but in terms of Saturday I don’t really know until tomorrow, so will have to put that on the backburner.”

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Pelly Ruddock Mpanzu is also missing as he continues to recover from a swollen ankle, but Paul Benson could be in the squad for the first time since August after recovering from his neck injury.

Still continued: “Pelly Ruddock is a lot, lot better, not this week but we think he’ll be pushing on next week.

“His ankle has swollen, it’s a lot better, and he’s fit anyway. So once that’s okay we don’t need to worry too much about putting him back in.

“Paul Benson played in the reserves on Tuesday and was fine, so he’ll probably come back into the squad.

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“He still needs a game or two as he’s been out a while, but he’ll be back as long as he trains okay tomorrow.”

Defender Mark O’Brien is also back in training after missing Sunday’s clash at Dagenham due to an insect bite as Still revealed: “He got bitten in the training ground, his leg became infected and it was like two legs.

“He’s trained today first time for just over a week. It was a gnat bit or some kind of thing, I’ve never seen anything like it, it was unbelievable.”

Still also confirmed he would be going with a strong team looking to get into the second round of the competition, adding: “I’m saying there might not be something (regarding changes), but not particularly, no.

“We’ve got a free week coming up, so we’ll be strong. If people might think is that our best team? It might be around that, yes.”