Wilshere explains why duo missed Luton's 5-0 win at Hitchin

Luton boss Jack Wilshere explained the absence of defensive duo Kal Naismith and Teden Mengi from Saturday’s 5-0 pre-season friendly victory over Hitchin Town.

Club captain Naismith, who played 45 times for Town last term, suffered a broken hand during the final game of the campaign at Bolton Wanderers, digging in bravely to complete the fixture as the Hatters won 3-2, although it wasn’t enough to secure the final play-off place, falling one point short after Stevenage scored a last-minute winner against Wigan Athletic.

Meanwhile, Mengi was restricted to just 25 outings, as after being a regular for the majority of Wilshere’s time in charge, picked up a serious hamstring injury during the Vertu Trophy clash against Plymouth Argyle in late February which sadly saw his campaign ended. Both are back at the Brache as Town returned to training last week, but weren’t used when Wilshere named two different XIs in either half of what was a comfortable victory at Top Field at the weekend.

Asked why that was, Wilshere, who gave run-outs to teenage duo Harry Fox and Christian Chigozie in the second period, said: “Kal hurt his hand at the end of last season, so he’s about a week behind. I think he can join in full contact from Monday, as he’s been around training doing little bits, but can’t quite do the full contact. Teds is the same, Teds has been around doing a little bit of training, he’s now trained for a couple of weeks which is good as he needs to get fit. We’ve got four centre backs and we chose Chigsy today to come and play so we’re looking after Teds a little bit and we’ll see how he gets on.”

It was Chigozie, who recently signed a new long-term contract with the club, that rounded off the scoring, heading in trialist Harrison Dudziak’s free kick with what was virtually the final action of the contest. The centre half was rightly quick to celebrate his strike too, something not often seen in a friendly, having missed the majority of last season due to his own hamstring issues. Highly rated by those at Kenilworth Road, then Wilshere was pleased to see him show some emotion when hitting the net, as he added: “It’s Chigs’ first goal, he’s a young player who’s come through the academy here.

"I always remember that feeling when you get the opportunity to go away with the first team and be with the first team, and you score, it’s a real nice feeling, so credit to him as last year wasn’t always easy for him. We kept him with us as we wanted him to train and develop with us and he has a lot, but also part of your development is playing games, so he’ll need to do that this year, but a really good start for him.”