Town defender faces another spell on the sidelines due to hamstring injury but skipper should be available for Terriers clash

Luton defender Reece Burke faces an anxious wait to find out the extent of the hamstring injury he picked up during Friday night’s 2-0 victory at his former club Hull City.

The 26-year-old had only just returned to the starting line-up after missing two matches with a blow to the head, plus a rib injury, scoring a magnificent first league goal of the season in the 2-0 success at Blackburn Rovers ahead of the international break.

However, with half time looming, the former Tigers centre half went down requiring treatment at the MK Stadium, eventually hobbling off and didn’t reappear for the second period, Gabe Osho on in his place.

It has been a frustrating theme for Burke, who has five Premier League appearances for West Ham under his belt, costing Hull £1.5m back in July 2018, since arriving at Kenilworth Road, as he suffered a variety of ailments last term, meaning that from his 27 Championship appearances, his highest run of successive starts numbered at six.

This term, he had begun five in a row before the unfortunate clash of heads at Cardiff, and asked if he knew how long Burke would be out, Town assistant manager Chris Cohen said: “No we’re waiting.

“You have to wait a period of time for it to get scanned to see the extent of it but obviously it was clear to see the way he went down that it looked like it was going to be a hamstring injury.

"We’re gutted for Reece because he’s been brilliant for us this year and last year.

"We believe as staff he is one of the top centre-backs in the division but unfortunately he keeps getting these little injuries that seem to be stopping him from getting a run of 15, 20 games.

"He played a lot of games last year but he had a lot of little injuries at the start of last year especially which kept him from playing as many games as he and us would like.”

With Burke expected to face an unknown period of time out, Cohen did confirm that captain Sonny Bradley should be available for tomorrow’s home game against Huddersfield Town if required, continuing: “Sonny is back around it.

"The team has been doing well but Sonny is the captain of our football club and a really key player on and off the pitch, so he’s back in and around it and raring to go.

“He’s had a few things, a little bit like Reece over the last year and a half.

"But what we have found is that any time anyone has been asked to step up, I remember the Preston game last year where we were playing with five full-backs as a back five, anyone that is asked to do a job, because of the way the manager implements his style on to the team, everyone knows their roles and everyone knows everyone else’s role.

"Anytime we ask anyone to go and do a job maybe that they haven’t done a lot before in their career they go in and do it so well we’re fortunate we don’t miss players of Sonny and Reece’s calibre.

"We have replacements ready and that is testament to the work the club has done in terms of recruitment and all the boys’ attitude whether they’re playing or not playing.”

Meanwhile, forward Cauley Woodrow is also expected to be out after missing the Friday night game on Sky with an injury picked up in training ahead of the game.

Cohen added: “It’s similar to the Reece one, we’re waiting for results.

"All the boys want to be fit and want to be playing, unfortunately throughout the course of the season you pick up these things and we roll with them.

"Luckily enough we have a wonderful squad and wonderful players to come in and replace them.

"We were gutted for Cauley last week, he played in the game (against Blackburn), we won the game and he was really looking forward to it, so for him to miss out is gutting, but hopefully it won’t be too long an injury.”