Mengi waiting for scan results as Bloomfield expects Town defender to be missing for a few weeks

Luton boss Matt Bloomfield is waiting on scan results to find out exactly how long defender Teden Mengi will be out for after the former Manchester United youngster suffered a leg injury during the 2-0 pre-season win at Southend United on Tuesday evening.

The 23-year-old was featuring for the first time since the opening friendly clash at Boreham Wood earlier in the month, only to be stretchered off after just 12 minutes when he was on the receiving end of a poor challenge from a Shrimpers opponent. It was a blow for both Mengi and the club, as the England U21s international, who has once more had a lot of interest in him over the summer, had been injured for the majority of Bloomfield’s spell in charge last term, only fit enough to play a part in the last five games of the Championship campaign.

He is now definitely out of Friday night’s League One opener against AFC Wimbledon, and also remains a doubt for the trip to Peterborough as well, with Bloomfield not too sure yet just when he will be back, saying: “We’ve had one scan and we’re waiting for another one is the truth on that one. We’re just not sure how severe it is right now, or not.

"He’s going to have another scan this week just to understand exactly what the injury is, so he’s going to miss a little bit of time, but hopefully not too long. Again, I don’t know all the information around that right now, but he’ll be missing certainly for a couple of weeks. We hope it’s not too much longer but I don’t know the full extent of that yet.”

One plus for the Hatters, who are also without Izzy Jones and Hakeem Odoffin for the next few months, strikers Jacob Brown and Elijah Adebayo still recovering from long-term injuries too, is that Mark McGuinness was named on the bench for the pre-season clash against Tottenham Hotspur yesterday, having had to fly home from Luton’s training camp out in Slovenia due to a virus.

Although he wasn’t expected to play in the goalless draw, it was important that for Bloomfield that the club record signing got to experience a match-day once more, continuing: “The plan was never to get him on the pitch, it was only ever going to be in a real big situation to put him on. We wanted him just to be a part of the group, get the kit on, do the warm up, as he’s such a big personality and character and leader for us.

"Unfortunately he had a virus when we were away in Slovenia, so he’s been in his bed a little bit too much in pre-season, but he’s just got back on the grass this week and we just wanted him to be back and around it as to how big a character he is. He’ll be back in training on Monday and building up to the game on Friday night.”

With Mengi absent, it also meant that Tom Holmes, who finished the last campaign on loan with Belgian side FCV Dender EH, a stint that was also hindered by injury, got his first action of the warm-up schedule too. With his future at Kenilworth Road also in doubt, it might be that the centre half comes into contention as well now, although Luton appear well stocked in his position when everyone is fit, with Christ Makosso, Mads Andersen and Kal Naismith all starting against Spurs, Wolves loanee Nigel Lonwijk an option too.

Discussing the ex-Reading defender, Bloomfield added: “If you look at Tuesday evening we had three defenders starting and three on the bench. Today (Saturday) because Nigel then plays as a wingback, Tom goes from being injured to back training, so it’s great to get him back and part of it. Although you want to be as pre-planned and as organised as you can in football management, you always have to be aware and you have to think on your feet a large number of times because it’s ever changing. You have to be ready to act, but Tom’s been a real solid character, a real solid player for this football club and we’re really pleased to have him back.”