Striker will travel with Luton squad to Plymouth but Town boss confirms defender faces weeks out

Luton boss Rob Edwards has confirmed that striker Jacob Brown will make the trip to Plymouth Argyle for the Hatters Championship clash tomorrow evening.

The 26-year-old hasn’t featured for Town since coming off the bench during the 4-4 Premier League draw with Newcastle United on February 3, with a serious knee injury suffered in training ruling him out ever since. However, having been back in training recently, the Scottish international is now fit enough to make the journey down to Devon with his team-mates, as Edwards said: “Browny, he’s travelling which will be great. We’ll see on that one (being in the match-day squad), but he’s making the journey down so that’s really good for us.”

If selected for the squad, it is unlikely that Brown will be in from the first whistle though, with Edwards continuing: “It’s difficult with the long term ones to bring them straight in and go ‘right you’re starting.’ Sometimes needs must and it depends where we are with the state of the group and other injuries, but at the moment now, touch wood, we’ve not got too many and that’s good.

"So we can normally introduce them, the easiest way is off the bench to get the minutes and then build them up. That makes more sense with the situation when you’ve got a larger group, it’s easier. Remember the situation we were in last year, when you’re down to the bare bones, you’re having to chuck someone in a bit earlier than you want. We’re not in that situation really now.”

One player who won’t be though is defender Amari’i Bell with Edwards revealing on Saturday that the Jamaican international had picked up a hamstring injury last week which saw him miss the 2-1 victory over Sheffield Wednesday. Although it isn’t the same one which kept him out for around five months last season, the boss stated he won’t be considered for the foreseeable future, continuing: “It's a number of weeks. To put a figure on it right now, I wouldn't want to put that pressure on him or the staff, but it is weeks.

"It’s not a week or 10 days, so that's really disappointing and really frustrating for him. He’s a big player for us. The fact that he can play in a number of different positions as well, he gives us real scope to be able to change things up even with the same personnel on the pitch if we wanted to. So I’m really frustrated for Amari’i and then obviously for us as I want to be able to select my best players and he’s certainly one of those.”

However, there was better news about duo Shandon Baptiste, who has missed the last two games with a hamstring problem, and Daiki Hashioka, who injured his calf in pre-season, the boss adding: “He’s (Baptiste) getting closer. He’s out on the grass working well today. He’s not trained with the group yet but that will be the next stage for him, so not long. Hashi’s a little bit ahead of him, he’s doing a bit more with the group now as well, so we’re getting there with those two.”