Wilshere praises how 'unbelievable' Saville has reacted to 'frustrating' spell out of Luton XI

Luton boss Jack Wilshere has praised the way in which recalled midfielder George Saville has responded to a ‘frustrating’ spell out of the side after starting the last two games for the Hatters.

The 32-year-old moved to Kenilworth Road on a free transfer in the summer, having left Millwall following four years at the New Den, starting all 11 League One games under previous manager Matt Bloomfield. He then went on to begin eight of Wilshere's first nine matches, missing the goalless draw against Rotherham United due to a mixture of being suspended and international duty.

Saville was dropped to the bench against Reading, and has only started two of Luton's last 13 third tier clashes, an unused substitute in four of them and not even included in the 1-0 loss at Huddersfield Town last month too. However, the ex-Chelsea youngster was in the starting line-up that drew 1-1 with Burton Albion on Saturday, keeping his place for the 2-1 Vertu Trophy quarter-final win over Plymouth Argyle on Tuesday night.

Having played over 40 games in four of the last five seasons in the Championship with the Lions and Middlesbrough, the Northern Ireland international used to starting the majority of the games in that time, then asked how he has been when being reduced to a limited role in recent weeks, Wilshere said: “He has found it frustrating and that’s credit to him that at his age and not that he’s old, but he’s one of the older players, that he’s still hungry to play, still hungry to improve.

"He’s the first one to knock on my door when he’s not in the team to find out why and what he can do to get back in the team, which has been difficult for him. Then to act like he has, with his attitude, with how he’s tried to support the players who have been playing has been unbelievable, really unbelievable. And for someone that has played so many minutes in his career, to have that role where he’s not playing, but still support, is credit to him. That’s the reason why he comes back into the team and he’s able to slot back in and help the team as well.”

On how he thinks the midfielder, who made his 500th career appearance in the week, has performed since coming back into the side too, Wilshere added: “I think he’s done really well and that’s credit to him, how he trains, how he works every day. He came out of the team because we wanted to play with one six and that was Walshy (Liam Walsh) at the time and then Walshy got injured and we tried Kasey (Palmer) in there, with Savs coming on to see out the game and help manage those moments in the game.

"But Sav is a really good footballer, I’ve said that all along. He’s got a real good football brain, he can help manage games, he can help manage players around him. He really is hungry and keen to do that so I thought it was a difficult game on Saturday when no-one really found their rhythm, but I thought on Tuesday, he was pivotal to landing on second balls, winning duels, controlling the tempo at times. That’s something we need in these moments so really happy with George.”