Dan ready to regain his Hatters place

The 26-year-old defender completed 90 minutes for the reserves in a 1-1 draw against Stevenage on Tuesday afternoon, his first full game of the campaign.

Gleeson had missed most of pre-season with ankle ligament damage and after recovering to play 45 minutes at Mansfield in August, he suffered a fresh back injury the next day, which has kept him out up until now.

He said: “I missed part of pre-season with ligaments in my ankle and having come back from that and playing 45 minutes at Mansfield, the following day in training, I just slipped and slipped two discs in my back.

“It certainly wasn’t a case of coming back too soon, just a freak accident really. I stopped to get the ball and (there was) a pain in my back and down my legs.

“When it happened I couldn’t lift my legs up, couldn’t bend over, it was horrible, nothing you’d wish on anyone.

“I’ve been up to London and had a cordial epidural injection and wasn’t allowed to do anything for six weeks.

“Since then, I’ve been gradually strengthening the muscles all around my back so hopefully, fingers crossed, it’s all behind me as I feel absolutely fine now.”

Although Gleeson has been on the sidelines, he has still been an interested spectator as Hatters attempt to win promotion back into the Football League.

He said: “I’ve watched the majority of the games. We’ve been doing OK. We’d like to be in a better position than we are right now but you always want more than you’ve got.

“Certainly results probably haven’t gone as well as we’d have liked, especially against the top teams.

“We need to start picking up points against them and keeping clean sheets and building from there really.

“I think everyone can see there’s a lot of quality at the club but we need to stop saying it now and start producing it week in week out.”

Now he is back fit, Gleeson is hoping to regain his first team place, although he didn’t reject the idea of going out on loan to gain some much needed match fitness.

He continued: “I’ll see what the manager says. I want to play football as soon as possible.

“There’s nothing like playing football. It’s all right people from the outside saying you get paid to train and do this and do that, but that’s not what it’s about. As it’s been for the last four or five months, there’s nothing to look forward to at the end of it.

“You train hard all week and there’s nothing there, so whether I go out on loan to get fit or stay here, so I’ll speak to the manager over the next few days.”

Gleeson will be back in contention for Saturday’s FA Cup first round clash with League Two strugglers Northampton Town, and believes his side have every chance of making the hat for round two.

He added: “I feel good, I feel fit, the back feels good so we’ll go from there.

“By all accounts it will be a big crowd. The FA Cup always springs a few surprises.

“I don’t think there’s too much between the teams in terms of league position and hopefully we can get one over them.”

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