Hatters chief will tread carefully with his squad after picking up injuries to Berry and LuaLua

Town chief Nathan Jones will continue to tread carefully with his squad to avoid picking up any injuries during the Championship run-in.

The Hatters were without Kazenga LuaLua and Luke Berry for Saturday’s 1-1 draw with Preston North End, as the pair had niggles that couldn’t be risked.

With Premier League Arsenal already losing three players to injury in the two games they have played since returning from the lockdown measures imposed by the coronavirus pandemic, Jones knows he has to protect his squad where possible.

He said: “It's such a strange environment at the minute.

“They've had 10 weeks off which is unusual for an athlete, and then having to come back in and suddenly play football and do things differently, so people are going to pick up injuries.

“We've done very well that we've only picked up LuaLua, as Berry picked up an injury before we came back.

“So that was one thing, in terms of everything, we've done quite well, but we've had to get them there safely.

“It's who can survive these nine games in this time, playing a certain way, having that intensity because you can't ramp up that intensity straight away and we are gathering that momentum.

“Today would have done us good as it's a tough game, a big point for us, so we have to take that.”

Jones also had issues in the centre of defence, revealing that both Matty Pearson and Sonny Bradley barely trained in the build-up to the contest.

It was Pearson who started, playing 84 minutes before being replaced by the skipper, as Jones said: “Matty hasn’t trained with us for 10 days.

"It was either him or Sonny today as both haven’t trained for 10 days, so it was important that we got that into their legs.”

Having the five substitutes meant Jones could freshen things up, which he did on the 75 minute mark with three changes, and then just under 10 minutes later, when bringing Danny Hylton and Bradley on.

He believes it is a necessary rule in such a congested schedule, with Luton facing a further eight games in under a month, adding: "Some would have started had they had a little bit more time, but we had to do that and in the current climate, I think it’s a very sensible thing with five substitutes.

"Otherwise you’re going to have teams depleted, games that are less intensity than they should be, and we have to keep the integrity of the competition.

"It’s very good that we could make five changes, we spoke vociferously about what we could do and how the whole squad could do that.

"Normally we've got a stadium full of fans, sucking the ball in that lifts them, gives them that adrenaline, we now have to find ways to get that impetus and the game changers is what we did.”