Luton chief unsure on Town defender's injury after Jamaican international was forced off against City

Luton boss Rob Edwards isn’t sure just how bad the injury to Amari’i Bell is after the centre half had to go off during Town’s 6-2 hammering at the hands of Manchester City in the FA Cup last night.

The Jamaican international was starting his 16th game out of 17 in all competitions for the Hatters when he pulled up following a challenge in the first period and after trying to play on, signalled to the bench that not all was right. Despite first teamer Gabe Osho among the substitutes, Bell eventually made way for youngster Joe Johnson, the 18-year-old winning just his fifth senior appearance of his fledgling Luton career.

With Town hit hard by injuries at the moment, defenders Mads Andersen and Dan Potts both not available, while Tom Lockyer, Sambi Lokonga, Elijah Adebayo, Jacob Brown and Marvelous Nakamba are all still absent, although Issa Kabore can return on Saturday, it leaves the Hatters without a great deal of options going into this weekend’s Premier League clash against Aston Villa, as shown by youngsters Zack Nelson and Axel Piesold also on the bench yesterday.

Asked if he had an update on Bell, Edwards said: “Not too much at the moment, he wasn’t fully fit going into the game but Gabe wasn’t either, and then when I was going to bring Gabe on, Gabe was saying he was feeling it in the warm up as well, so Gabe didn’t come on, so it was young JJ, all the best mate, get on there against this lot!

"We’ve got a few who have got some war wounds at the moment, and we’ll have to do a lot of work to try and be as strong as we can for the weekend, but no excuses, it’s just what it is at the moment. It became difficult then, we kind of ended up against them with just two defenders on the pitch, that’s tough.”