No timescale yet on Luton winger's return from stress fracture

Town boss Matt Bloomfield has confirmed there is no timescale as of yet on the return for Hatters winger Izzy Jones who is still expected to be out for a few months after suffering a stress fracture to his back during pre-season.

The Guyana international was one of the bright spots in the second half of Town’s relegation from the Championship last term, as after being signed from Middlesbrough for an undisclosed fee in January, he began showing some real signs of promise both in defence and attack, settling into his wingback role, going on to score twice, his pace proving a threat on the right hand side.

Although he faced Boreham Wood in Luton’s opening friendly of their warm-up schedule, it was then revealed that Jones had been ruled out with the injury for the foreseeable future, and giving an update on the ex-Tooting & Mitcham United youngster this week, Bloomfield said: “There’s no timescale, it’s a stress fracture and we’re waiting for him to have a scan next Monday I think it might be. That will be six weeks post injury and if that’s reflecting well, he can then start picking up his rehab, so he’s still a little way away.

"Obviously one of the reasons we played three at the back was that Izzy is such an unbelievable wingback and so to lose him and Alf (Alfie Doughty) around the same time is disappointing. We’re now working towards the next boys who can pick up the baton and do that job as we see fit. He’s not imminent Iz, but hopefully in the next six or seven weeks-ish. It depends how his scan goes. If there’s still a little bit of fracture in there, he’s going to take a little bit longer so we’re waiting for that."

On whether Jones would be ready to play if he is able to return in a couple of months, Bloomfield added: “I don’t know exactly, I’m kind of getting information from the medical team. I think it’s back to full training. We’ve got to be careful with him as a stress fracture injury, we don’t want to force him back so we hope in the next couple of months-ish.

"We’ll have him back, but again we have to let him take each stage, tick it off, before we can give him an exact timescale. We’d all love to have a fully fit squad right now ready to compete, but we haven’t. So in the next couple of months we hope to have him available, but we’ve got to allow him that time for his body to heal to take those steps forward.”