Centre half pair haven’t featured much in pre-season
Reece Burke and Gabe Osho of Luton Town are expected to miss Town’s first Premier League game of the season against Brighton & Hove Albion in less than a fortnight after manager Rob Edwards said they are still a few weeks away from returning to training.
Although Burke played the first half of Town’s first pre-season game, a 3-1 win against Peterborough United behind closed doors on July 14, the centre half hasn’t been seen since, and Osho hasn’t played a minute of friendly action either.
Last night’s 0-0 draw at Wolverhampton Wanderers saw summer signings Mads Andersen, Tom Lockyer, and Amari’i Bell in the visitors’ back three, with Dan Potts replacing Bell in the second half.
Reece Burke is unlikely to be fit for Luton Town’s first Premier League game of the season – photo: Richard Heathcote/Getty Images
Reece Burke is unlikely to be fit for Luton Town’s first Premier League game of the season – photo: Richard Heathcote/Getty Images
Giving an update afterwards, Edwards said: “Unfortunately we’ve been missing them for the last couple of weeks and they still are for the next few weeks as well.
“We really want to get them back quickly but we can’t rush and it’s frustrating as obviously the back end of last season, we were missing them for a little while and I thought we were a little bit of a different team without them.
“Mads has come in and been excellent, Amari’i, Potts and Locks were really good in that back-line tonight as well, but we’ll be looking to try and get them back as quickly as possible.”
Burke is one of the few members in Town’s squad with Premier League experience, having played five times for West Ham during the 2014-15 campaign, but has suffered with injury since moving to Luton after arriving on a free transfer from Hull in 2021.
Making 57 appearances in that time, the defender has never been able to get a run of more than six consecutive league starts, as it looked like he would miss the play-off final against Coventry City last term due to a groin problem.
However, he recovered in time to play a massive role in at Wembley, coming off the bench after just 10 minutes to replace Tom Lockyer following his on-field collapse and able to get through the entire contest as Luton won on penalties
Osho also fought his way back from a knee problem to score in Town’s semi-final success over Sunderland and get through 112 minutes at the home of English football, as Edwards knows the duo, who both signed new contracts in the summer, can’t be rushed back.
He added: “Both of them (struggled) at times last year, Gabe probably got more time than Burkey, especially under us.
“Reece, he works so, so hard, our focus is now when he gets back, he’s got to stay back.
“We’ve just got to make sure that him and us as a team have got to work really hard to make sure he gets his load right.
“He’s one that will overcook things, he’ll try too hard and do too much at times because he’s such an honest pro.
“He’s such a good pro, so we’ve got to make sure we put the reins on him a little bit as well.”
