Hatters defender Lockyer ruled out for the rest of the season after undergoing ankle operation

Luton defender Tom Lockyer will miss the rest of the season after undergoing an operation on his ankle ligament damage.

The 26-year-old Wales international had been in excellent form for the Hatters since winning a regular place in the side following a summer move from Charlton Athletic, forming a solid centre half partnership with Sonny Bradley.

However, he picked up the injury in the 2-0 defeat to Cardiff back in mid-February and although he was on the bench for the 1-0 win at Preston prior to the international break, will now play no further part as boss Nathan Jones said: “Tom will miss the rest of the season.

"Tom’s had to have an operation, its a real strange one, but he's had to go in which is a bit frustrating for me, because he’s going to be out for two months, which only affects a month of the season but he's had two months out prior to that.”

In Lockyer’s absence, it has seen Town put a makeshift defence together, with Jordan Clark at left back following a head injury to Dan Potts, while captain Bradley also missed a large chunk of games due to a thigh problem, meaning Kal Naismith was alongside Matty Pearson.

Bradley did make a welcome return for the second half of today's 2-1 defeat to Barnsley, as Jones felt the injuries have hit them dearly, adding: “Maybe, and that’s something we haven’t mentioned.

"But we’ve had Jordan Clark playing at left back who’s a right winger, Breesy’s (James Bree) come back, then we’ve had Kal come in, Matty Pearson is playing through a bit of injury too.

"Sonny came back today, we've had Tom Lockyer out, Dan Potts out, we’ve had real defenders who we’ve relied on that have done well for us and have not been in the side and that's been a real frustration.

“So hopefully we get Sonny back, Potts is not too far off and we can start getting some consistency, but at the minute we're not getting that."