Luton Town hopeful of welcoming back two of their top-scorers against Huddersfield Town but Hatters to miss key midfielder for entire play-off campaign

Luton Town are hopeful of having top-scorer Elijah Adebayo and Luke Berry back for their Championship play-off semi-final against Huddersfield Town tonight.

Adebayo has scored 17 goals for the Hatters in their successful push for the play-offs while Berry, who is third in the club's goal-scoring charts with six in 13 appearances, is closing in on a return.

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He was in a protective boot as Luton celebrated their top-six finish last weekend but manager Nathan Jones insisted that was precautionary.

Adebayo has been struggling with a hamstring problem but Jones said of his possible involvement against the Terriers: “He's in a real good place so we’re happy with that, because it will be really nice to have him available. We’re closer every day in terms of that.

"There’s some big players that are much, much closer to being available for selection than a week ago for example, so we’re in a far better place.

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“I’ve mentioned inadvertently big players and Elijah’s a big player for us, so it’s far better news on Elijah.”

PLAY-OFFS - Sheffield United and Huddersfield Town will have VAR at the Championship play-off final if they reach Wembley.

FIT AGAIN: Luton Town's Elijah Adebayo. Picture: PA Wire.FIT AGAIN: Luton Town's Elijah Adebayo. Picture: PA Wire.
FIT AGAIN: Luton Town's Elijah Adebayo. Picture: PA Wire.

On whether Berry, whose season has been routinely disrupted by injury, could be available, Jones revealed: “Boots are precautionary. They look far worse, you look like a Stormtrooper in one, but they’re actually precaution and prevention rather than some disaster has happened.

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“Luke is a lot closer, he’s just not been able to gather any momentum really as every time he does he kind of breaks down and that stems from the fact that he was injured in pre-season.

“We’ve been disappointed with that as Luke has been a big, big miss.”

One player that won't be available for Luton is midfielder Pelly-Ruddock Mpanzu. He underwent an operation to clean out some cartilage and is out for the rest of the season.

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MANAGER: Luton Town boss Nathan Jones. Picture: Getty Images.MANAGER: Luton Town boss Nathan Jones. Picture: Getty Images.
MANAGER: Luton Town boss Nathan Jones. Picture: Getty Images.

He has been sidelined since Luton's 2-0 defeat at Huddersfield in April.

“He’s had an operation so he won’t be fit, he’s one we won’t get back," said Jones.

“It’s just a little cartilage clean up which will keep him out until June, so unless the final gets postponed, we won’t be seeing Pelly.”

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