UPDATED: Inniss out for Hatters but Lawless and Mpanzu are fit for Macclesfield trip

Ill on-loan Crystal Palace defender Ryan Inniss is set to miss out on tomorrow (Tuesday) night’s game at Macclesfield Town, writes Mark Wood.
Cambridge United v Luton Town. Photos by Liam Smith. wk 03.Cambridge United v Luton Town. Photos by Liam Smith. wk 03.
Cambridge United v Luton Town. Photos by Liam Smith. wk 03.

The match coincides with the last day of the Eagles teenager’s loan spell with the Hatters, with talks ongoing as to whether he is set to stay at Kenilworth Road.

Boss John Still said: “Ryan Inniss trained on Friday, but didn’t train Saturday. We are still in talks with Palace whether or not we want to extend that.

“And we’re going to talk to them late on today, but there’s not really been a decision made on it.

“What it is is, he wouldn’t play tomorrow because he’s not well and his loan is up tomorrow. His last game was tomorrow.

“And with the fitness of Fraser (Franks) and (Anthony) Charles, and (Alex) Lacey maybe only being a game or so behind, it’s whether or not we want to extend that, but as I say we’re talking to Palace and we’ll work it out today.”

Key midfielders Pelly Ruddock Mpanzu and Alex Lawless, have recovered from a knock and an eye infection respectively, and could feature against the Silkmen.

New defender Fraser Franks looks likely to partner Steve McNulty at the back in the absence of Inniss, as the game has come too soon for defensive players Alex Lacey and Andy Parry, although the pair are back in full training.

Still contined: “It doesn’t make Lacey and Parry available, purely on games. We want to try and give them another, even if it’s an in-house game.

“Maybe we might do something on Thursday with the youth and people who are not playing, maybe give them something on Thursday to push them on.

“It would be a bit unfair on them to use them at the moment.

“If we had to we would, but I think it would be a little bit unfair, because I think that they haven’t had enough game time.

“As I said, if we had to we would, but Charlo has had a little bit more game time than Lacey, so he’s a little bit further in front.

“Parry has not done as much training as Lacey, he’s been a little bit stop-start with his injury.

“We’ve got Pelly, we’ve Cameron (McGeehan) and Robbo (Matt Robinson) so we don’t need to, he can spend a bit more time trying to get fit.

“Other than those players, even Lawless is probably a touch behind, but further in front than them.

“We could well include him, but I think over the next week to 10 days I would like to think that those players are right back in it.”

Town haven’t picked up any extra knocks in training in the interim, but the lack of game time is proving an issue for Luton with a number of returning players bidding to get back up to speed.

Still added: “Nothing in training and there’s been some extra time for those that have had knocks.

“By and large we’ve got people getting over knocks that are training. People are training now, Lacey’s training full out, Parry’s training full out, Alex Lawless is training full out.

“The problem has been other than the game against Leighton Town we haven’t really played.

“So people that have been out for a while that you were perhaps wanting to give three, four, five games to, because they’ve been out for a long time, if you waited for three, four, five games you could be waiting for another month.

“So we’ve perhaps got to push them on a little bit by upping the training level and giving them a little bit more to do than you would probably normally do because they’re not playing games.

“But listen, how it is is how it is, I don’t moan about it.”

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