Berry will feature against Seagulls tonight

Hatters midfielder Luke Berry will be included in tonight's squad to face Brighton U21s in the Checkatrade Trophy as he looks to build up his fitness for a return to the first team.
Luke Berry will be involved against Brighton U21s this eveningLuke Berry will be involved against Brighton U21s this evening
Luke Berry will be involved against Brighton U21s this evening

The 26-year-old suffered a horrific leg injury back in March, but has come back well ahead of schedule and made a brief cameo in the 1-0 Carabao Cup defeat at West Bromwich Albion last month.

However, boss Nathan Jones will now look to give him more playing time this evening, saying: “Definitely, he was so close anyway to being on the bench at the weekend, but we just felt he hasn’t had enough minutes, competitive, realistic minute.

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“So we hope he gets those and if he gets those, he’ll be a lot closer to full fitness.”

One player who won’t be including against the Seagulls is striker Danny Hylton, as he continues to recover from a thigh injury, Jones saying: “Hylts, we won’t risk putting him involved.

“We’ll give Hylts the maximum time possible to recover from his injection and once he recovers from that then we’ll know he’s ready.”

With the likes of Alan Sheehan, Alan McCormack, Lloyd Jones and James Justin all desperate for minutes though, Jones felt the match is the perfect fixture to make alterations, adding: “It has come at a good time. With the squad we have, if we want to rest and rotate, we are able to do that, with the quality we have.

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“Our planning will be for weeks in advance, we plan for this game, what we will do in the training week, so it hasn’t come all of a sudden.

“We’ve known the fixtures pretty early and we’ve adjusted accordingly.”