No setback for Mpanzu as Luton midfielder misses QPR and Norwich wins due to a precaution

Hatters boss Nathan Jones confirmed midfielder Pelly-Ruddock Mpanzu hasn’t suffered a recurrence of the knee injury that saw him sidelined for over four months.

The 28-year-old had been back in the match-day squad recently after recovering from the problem that saw him miss the end of Town’s season, returning to be used as a substitute in the games against Hull, Huddersfield and West Bromwich Albion.

However, he wasn’t on the bench for Saturday’s 3-1 win over QPR, or the 1-0 victory at Norwich City on Tuesday evening, as when asked about his absence, Jones said: “He hasn’t had a setback.

"What happens when you come back from a long-term injury, sometimes other parts of your body are compensating or going through things.

"He came back quite quickly and we integrated him pretty quickly.

"He’s got real stiffness so we have to make sure he doesn’t play and is really aggressive on that because he plays aggressively, otherwise he will break down.

"It’s more of a precaution than anything.”

There was better news regarding Gabe Osho though who has been out since the 2-0 win at Hull last month, picking up an unspecified injury in training.

Joes continued: “He’s back involved in training, so it gives us an added option as well.

"Louie Watson is back as well, so we’re a lot stronger this week.”

Meanwhile, ahead of Sunday’s trip to Watford, Jones had no issues over Henri Lansbury, Sonny Bradley or Elijah Adebayo, as the trio dropped to the bench at Carrow Road in midweek, the latter two brought on in the second half to help the Hatters to a fantastic victory.

Jones said: “We have to use the squad and to have three games in a week, against three possession-dominate sides, three ex-Premier League sides, we’re going to need to use the squad.

“Henri can’t do three in a week.

"That’s not to say he’s going to start but we were excited by our line-up the other day which meant we would have the option of playing Henri.

"Whether he starts or not is another thing but it is there.

“Sonny has just come back from injury plus we wanted to be really proactive in terms of our wide centre-halves.

"They are all available it’s just if selected.”

Although Fred Onyedinma went off with against Norwich just after the hour mark, the likes of Jordan Clark, Allan Campbell, James Bree and Amari’i Bell all completed another 90 minutes, looking just as strong at the final whistle as they did from the first.

Jones added: “We had an issue with Fred but made a change and everyone else is fine.

“We’re a fit squad, we have to be because of how we play, how aggressive we want to be.

“They’re consummate professionals, you can’t be that fit if you don’t do absolutely everything right and pretty much everyone at the football club does everything right.

"They’re durable athletes, they’re used to doing big distances, used to doing big shifts.

"They train regularly so their fitness levels are through the roof but so are the whole squad’s because we need to be.”