Sluga back in contention for Boro trip as Hatters chief faces a decision over whether to recall Croatian international

Luton keeper Simon Sluga is back in full training once more with manager Nathan Jones confirming he will be available for Wednesday night's Championship trip to Middlesbrough.

The 27-year-old has missed Town's last four matches due to a shoulder injury picked up in the 4-0 defeat at Cardiff City, with James Shea deputising.

His absence hasn't overly affected the Hatters, Shea keeping successive clean sheets in his last two outings and helping the Hatters claim seven points from a possible 12.

When asked for an update on the Croatian, Jones said: "Sluga’s back in full training, so it’s when we want to put him in really.

"He’s trained for four days now and it wasn’t a major one so it’s not like he missed a massive amount of time.

"Being a goalkeeper, it’s not like he has to do 11-12kms, with high-intensity running, so, when we feel it’s right and if we feel it’s right, we’ve got that option to put him back in."

Discussing Shea's display in the 3-0 win over Preston on Saturday, Jones continued: “If I’m honest, there wasn’t a bad performance.

"I think even the minute amount that James Shea had to do, he was very proactive off his line, came and took some crosses, had safe hands.

"Right throughout the team to James’ hat-trick, I thought everyone played their part in terms of their work-rate.

"It wasn’t the most fluent, eye-catching display of being just an unbelievable Barcelona-esque footballing game, but what we asked from the players and what we wanted them to do, they all did it to a man."

Attacker Elliot Lee remains likely to miss the game at the Riverside Stadium, as does striker Danny Hylton even though he has now returned to training as well, with Jones saying: “Elliot, it probably is (too soon).

"Hylts is back as well, it's probably a few days too early for Hylts to come back in but we’re in a decent place and that’s good, coming up with two tough games now.

“Then we’ve got the rare thing of a free week after that so we really want big effort from them for the next two games.

"Then we can let them deflate for a few days, enjoy the Christmas period before another crazy time."

There was also good news over defender James Bree who might be available having not played in the weekend triumph, with Jones adding: “Bree had a little injection, just to numb a few things.

"He was having a nerve issue in his thigh, which hindered him a little bit, so we decided to take him out for Saturday and get it right.

"We know it’s a tough period coming up so we wanted to get him right, so that he will be available for this period."