Jones confirms Burke will be out for 'weeks' following hamstring injury against Hull

Hatters defender Reece Burke faces a number of weeks on the sidelines after the extent of his hamstring injury suffered during the 2-0 win at his former club Hull City last week was revealed.

The 26-year-old went down holding his leg just before the break, and looking in real discomfort, was forced to hobble off.

Assistant manager Chris Cohen confirmed on Monday that he would require a scan to see what the damage was and giving an update on his diagnosis this afternoon, boss Nathan Jones said: “He’ll be out, not a significant amount of time, but it will be weeks and then we have to judge that then.

"He’s so important to us and it’s really unfortunate because he’s been in fine form.

"He’s the type of important player we want, aggressive, which is something that not many said about Reece Burke before he came here.

"But a real aggressive centre half now, athletic, and he’s just picked up a fatigue injury, so we’ve got to manage him.

"As it’s not just about getting him back and coming back from that, the demands we put on them, we don’t want to put him in any danger.

"It’s unfortunate, but we’ll manage that, it will be weeks, how many we don’t know yet, it’s how he reacts to everything, so we won’t put a timescale on that.”

Following his move to Kenilworth Road from the Tigers in the summer of 2021, Burke has gradually established himself as one of first names in Town’s back three, making the right-sided centre half role his own.

He showed his ability to be a threat at the other end too, scoring a first league goal against Blackburn Rovers recently, racing away to curl a wonderful effort into the net from 25 yards.

The main issue that has seen him only play 42 times in all competitions, is his consistency of availability, with a number of niggling injuries restricting the ex-West Ham United player to a best of only six consecutive league starts.

However, that can be down to his new role in the side, as Jones added: “We’ve asked him to play a certain way from what he has.

"He’s now a really, proactive, front-footed central defender, whereas before, playing in a four, you don’t, you’ve just got to mark and you haven’t got to do the things we’re asking of him.

"So there's a lot of considerations there, but when he has played, he’s been excellent and he’s developing into a really front-footed centre half.”