Luton boss confirms 16-year-old Chigozie could be involved against the Cherries

Luton boss Rob Edwards confirmed that 16-year-old Christian Chigozie could well be included in the club’s Premier League squad that faces AFC Bournemouth at Kenilworth Road tomorrow.

With the Hatters in the midst of a quite horrendous injury crisis that has robbed them of 11 first team players, it saw the Chiltern Academy Year 11 pupil, who is taking his GCSEs this summer, named as a substitute for the 2-0 defeat to title-chasing Arsenal at the Emirates on Wednesday evening. Although he didn’t make it on to the pitch, with Reece Burke the only player that has a chance of returning to face the Cherries, if the ex-West Ham centre half doesn’t make it, Chigozie should find himself called on once more.

Due to his limited options, rather than leave empty spaces on the bench, Edwards has opted to go with a number of youngster in recent weeks, Joe Johnson, Zack Nelson, Axel Piesold and Dominic Dos Santos Martins all involved, and why Chidozie was the latest academy graduate to get the nod, the manager said: “We’ve picked him out in a few games.

“We’ve gone to watch the U18s, or the youth team or a reserve game, whatever you want to call it these days and I’ve had really good feedback on him from the staff. We like him as a person, he’s a great young kid, a real role model I think in the academy and they’ve got high hopes for him, so it was great to be able to give him that experience. He’ll be in the squad again tomorrow and we’ll see if he’s needed to be on the bench or not depending on Burkey’s fitness.”

With the teenager still not even old enough to be a first year scholar with Luton yet, having started the campaign with the U16s, Chigozie has gone on to play for the U18s and U21s, also featuring in the Premier League Cup campaign as well. Town had to go as far as ask for the school's permission for him to miss classes to train with the first team last week and on what he made of being on the bench in north London, Edwards added: “We’ve spoken about it and I think he loved the experience

"He’s been training with us for a week or 10 days. I’ve not seen anyone taking him under their wing or anything like that, I’d like to think the whole group would do that. He was sitting on the back of the bus with Andros Townsend after the game, so you don’t get many more experienced people than Andros, having a chat with him, so that was nice to see.

"When he was younger he was actually a Tottenham fan, so it was a special moment for him and something that he’ll remember for a long, long time. Hopefully it will inspire him as well to think, I want a bit of this for the whole way through my career. So hopefully it kicks him on, as he is working incredibly hard, to keep working incredibly hard and keep doing what he’s doing."