'Outstanding' Wells a doubt as Hatters chief could make changes against Terriers
Striker had to go off in Barnsley mauling
Luton boss Jack Wilshere was hopeful that ‘outstanding’ striker Nahki Wells wouldn’t be missing for long after suffering an injury during Saturday’s trip to Barnsley, as Town’s manager admitted changes could well be made from the appalling 5-0 defeat at Oakwell when entertaining Huddersfield Town this evening.
The 35-year-old is a huge doubt to feature against his former side, having moved to the Terriers over a decade ago in January 2014, initially on loan from Bristol City and then permanently for a fee of around £1.6m. He stayed at the John Smith’s Stadium for just over three years, scoring 48 goals in 152 outings for the club, before Burnley shelled out £5m for his services in August 2017.
Moving to Luton on a free transfer in the summer, Wells has struggled to find the net thus far, on target just three times from 15 appearances, and only once in League One. He looked destined to double his tally in the third tier on Saturday when seizing on a poor back header from the Tykes’ back-line and rounding keeper Murphy Cooper, only to see two defenders get back in the nick of time to dive in and send the ball behind for a corner before he could tuck it away.
Injuring himself in the attempt, Wells was taken off for Jerry Yates moments later, and asked for an update on the forward, who has started every game for Wilshere, bar the Vertu Trophy group stage clash with Brighton & Hove Albion U21s, he said: “Honestly I don’t know. I knew he had to come off and I saw he was in quite a bit of bother. Let’s hope he’s okay as he’s been outstanding for us and we’re going to need him. I think it was the chance he had. They defended that moment excellently, but I think he caught his ankle and we’ll see.”
Meanwhile, following the manner of the defeat in South Yorkshire then Wilshere could look to shuffle his pack which means defenders Nigel Lonwijk and Christ Makosso, who have been out of favour recently, are options to come back in, although there was still no update on the length of time Ali Al-Hamadi will be missing.
Asked if they were both in contention to face a visiting side who, under Lee Grant, are now seventh in the table, recovering from a run of five straight defeats to win their last three games, including a 3-1 triumph at Mansfield on Saturday, the boss continued: “Yes, everyone does (come back into his plans), and I think our job now as coaches is to try and work out who can recover, physically as well as mentally and who can come into the team.
“We’ll see how everyone responds and I said that to the players before the game, I had a difficult conversation with Nigel about you’re not going to be in the squad, but we’re going to need you. Zack Nelson against Stockport, he was out of the squad but he was in today, that is how I see it, that’s how I work. Sometimes a player might not be in the squad, but in a couple of weeks he’s going to start. I think football is that way now with the intensity and all the games, the schedule. We have to make changes and we have to make sure we recover quickly as we need some players to play again, but also the players that were watching or at home watching, they need to be ready as well.”
Meanwhile, following such a woeful performance at the weekend, Wilshere believes that having a game come around so quickly is ideal to try and get it out of their system. He added: “I think they know that and I think they understand that. That’s the beautiful thing about football, sometimes we complain about the schedule, but sometimes it’s just nice to go again and get this one out of the way.”