Hatters captain Bradley will be given as much time as he needs by Luton boss

Hatters captain Sonny Bradley will be given as much time off as he needs by the club after the tragically sad death of his father Ray recently.

The defender has missed Luton's last two matches to be with his family and will continue to do so after the news that the 57-year-old, who was regular in the Bobbers Club before home matches during his son's time at Kenilworth Road, passed away.

Speaking to the press today, boss Nathan Jones said: "We’ve managed to speak to him, we’ve kept in regular contact, I don’t want to divulge too much as it’s a personal issue.

"He had the issue from last week, he knew of it, we’ve given Sonny some time off to be with his family at an important time and the best wishes of the club are with him and his family in everything he does, as it’s tragic, an absolute tragedy.

"He was such an important part of what Sonny does, I know that he travelled with the fans and he was a real big Luton Town fan now, so a real tragedy.

"Sonny is our captain, our heart’s with him and our support’s with him, anything he needs then he knows where we are.

“Sonny will dictate when he’s ready to come back, we’ve already spoken to Sonny a little while back, he said, 'look, I need this and then I'll be back in and I’ll be ready to go,.'

"So that was set in stone, and Sonny seems to be adhering to that.”

In Bradley's absence, Jones opted for a partnership between Matty Pearson and Tom Lockyer for the 3-1 win over Norwich last week and 2-0 defeat to Swansea on Saturday, which saw Pearson dismissed after 70 minutes for a second yellow card.

He will now be suspended for tomorrow's trip to Coventry City, and with Bradley missing as well, it leaves Jones with a decision to make on who plays alongside Lockyer.

Glen Rea appears the natural choice, as Town's boss added: "Yes, we have him and we’ve got Dan Potts who can play there as well, which is key, so we’ve got options in there, we’re not left bare in any way, shape or form, so it will be interesting.

"We’ll see, but it’s a squad game, we keep saying it’s a squad game and now it’s coming to fruition.

"As suddenly from having an absolutely full squad, we’ve had six or seven out.

"People made a big thing about Norwich last week having injuries, no-one said about ours and we had five or six starters out, no-one mentioned that, because it wasn’t a big story for Luton to have five or six starters out.

"It was a big story for Norwich to have a load out because they’re Norwich, but that was a little bit disrespectful.

"We had six starters out from the first team, so if we are expected to produce levels and we have six starters out, but Norwich are given leeway, then there’s something wrong there, considering the size of budgets."