Jones confirms sickness bug that rocked Town at Watford is still affecting the Hatters

Luton boss Nathan Jones admits the ill effects of the sickness bug that ‘decimated’ the Hatters before their trip to Watford on Sunday is still lingering among the squad.

Ahead of Town’s trip to their fiercest rivals last weekend, Jones saw an unwell Henri Lansbury drop out on the Saturday, while despite believing the illness had been contained, found it had spread to Dan Potts and Luke Berry the following morning, with captain Sonny Bradley only lasting 45 minutes of the contest as well, Town handed a 4-0 hammering.

Although Jones would have preferred to discover the fault to lay elsewhere, he confirmed that wasn’t the case, saying: “It’s a bug.

"Henri Lansbury was the first to go down, so that could be kids at school or whatever it is, you never know.

“We were able to clear him, but we didn’t think it had spread to anyone.

“Then, when you wake up on Sunday morning and it’s a 12 o’clock kick-off, you’re doing all your pre-match at 8:20am and people can’t do that.

“Then, it turns into a little bit of turmoil, they rallied but it just wasn’t meant to be.

"But there were enough players out there to have put in a better performance than we did, it just wasn’t ideal preparation.

“Some got symptoms without massive things.

"Someone like Sonny, for example, had it but wasn’t as bad as Luke Berry and Dan Potts, but it just depleted his energy.

“It wasn’t food poisoning, we’d love to blame a Watford hotel, but we couldn’t. It wasn’t. It was a bug.

“Sickness, diarrhoea, something that went through people and it’s prolonged, so it wasn’t food poisoning, where once you clear it, it’s done.

“It’s hung around in some of them, so that’s how we know it was a bug.

“We’ve done everything possible, deep cleaning the changing rooms and training ground.

"We’ve cleared it on Monday, so no-one was in and did everything possible, it just came at the worst possible time.

“Some are still suffering with it, some are fully recovered.

"To be fair we were right in the initial stages of it, it wasn’t like we had it Thursday and people were coming out with it.

"The first one went down Saturday so Sunday was probably the worst day and Monday.

"We have a few out with it and it is still affecting the squad.”

Although Bradley started the game on Sunday, replaced by Gabe Osho at the break, Jones confirmed that he wouldn’t be risking anyone who wasn’t feeling 100 per cent when Sunderland are at Kenilworth Road this weekend, adding: “Anyone that isn’t available today (Thursday) won’t play on Saturday, we can’t take that kind of risk.

"We have people back now, we have one or two back from injury so we’re in a stronger position.

"We move forward now and it’s all focus on Sunderland.”