Town boss Rob Edwards couldn’t hide his frustration that Japanese international Daiki Hashioka picked up a calf injury during this afternoon’s 1-0 pre-season friendly win over Ukrainian Premier League side FC Rukh Lviv out in Slovenia.
The 25-year-old, who signed for the Hatters from Belgian top-flight club Sint-Truiden for a fee of around £2m in January, struggled to get to grips with the pace of the Premier League last term, but with Issa Kabore heading back to Manchester City following his loan spell, was expected to stake a serious claim for the right wingback slot this term, with Luton now back in the Championship once more. Having played the second half against AGF on Saturday, Hashioka was then called on from the start today, only to hobble off with 40 minutes gone, young defender Aidan Francis-Clarke on in his place.
Speaking to the club’s official website about the issue afterwards, a clearly despondent Edwards, who saw his squad decimated by injuries last term, including losing Dan Potts and Jordan Clark for lengthy periods during the pre-season campaign, said: “He was about to sprint, turn and sprint, but it looks like he’s tweaked his calf, so we’ll have to see how he reacts in the next couple of days and see how long he is, but it’s a frustrating one. It was a good day, I’m just a little bit frustrated because of the Hashi situation.”
Hashioka’s injury wasn’t the only incident of concern for the Luton chief, with midfielder Tahith Chong, who starred during the latter half of last season, another who had to go off. He was involved in a collision with a visiting player just before the hour mark, replaced by Chiedozie Ogbene, but Edwards was quick to reassure supporters, adding: “He’s all right, thank goodness. It was impact, the (medical) guys got over there very quickly, managed him, wanted to make sure that he was all right. But he’s all right, it was just a few bangs and bruises in the end.”
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