Wilshere hopeful Luton midfielder is close to ending his 14-month absence

Hatters boss Jack Wilshere is keeping his fingers crossed that midfielder Shandon Baptiste will be back in action before the end of the year

The 28-year-old hasn’t featured for the Hatters for 14 months now, his last appearance coming against Cardiff City on August 23, 2025, as having played three games beforehand, then suffered anterior cruciate ligament damage in training which has kept him out ever since. It was yet another in a long line of injuries that Baptiste has had to recover from during his career, not just with Luton, having struggled with Brentford prior to arriving at Kenilworth Road, which has restricted him to just 17 appearances during his first season in Bedfordshire, making only nine starts.

He has since made a return to training at the Brache, and on whether he could be involved again before the end of 2026, Wilshere said: “I hope so, I hope so. He has to come through a few more tests yet, a 21s game, probably a couple of 21s games, then be on the bench, get on the pitch that way, and come through that, but I’ve got my fingers crossed for him.

“Shandon’s getting closer, he’s getting better and better day by day in training. He’s now trained for a good block, he’s probably three or four weeks where he’s got better and better each time. He’s done a few 11 v 11s, but not long enough to be included yet. He probably needs an U21s game first, when you’ve been out for that long, it’s just the natural way that it has to be, but someone who’s looking good and hopefully it won’t be too long.”

Meanwhile, giving an update on fellow midfielder Sverre Sandal, who also suffered a knee injury in training early last month, and was ruled out of the foreseeable future by the club, Wilshere continued: “We gave him some time where he could go back to Norway, to go and see his family.

"He’s got some contacts out there and we’re in contact with the physio he did some work with over there, just to refresh him mentally. He’s come back the last few days, he’s smiling, he’s happy, he’s on the next stage of his rehab, which is a block of strength work where we have to see how his knee responds to it. But everything’s going how we think it should and he’s not close, but he’s still on track.”

Finally, there was better news regarding Shayden Morris, Benny Benagr and Jayden Lukser, with the trio almost ready to make their returns from hamstring injuries, with Wilshere adding: “Shayden, Benny and Jayden, I called them the hamstring gang. They’re getting towards the end of their rehab, again they’ve still got things they need to tick off.

"They’re joining in with training, all three of them were in the first part of training today, which was nice. We need competition for places, we need the ability to have a different threat, whether that be in midfield with Jayden, whether that be on the wings with Shayden and Benny, so they’re getting closer which is really positive.”