Berry’s serious leg injury impacted Luton team-mates – Nathan Jones

Posted Saturday, March 31, 2018 by PA

Nathan Jones admitted his Luton players were left reeling by a serious leg injury to Luke Berry that overshadowed their 2-1 defeat at Colchester.

The Hatters midfielder required lengthy treatment and was stretchered off after going down in the second minute of the Weston Homes Community Stadium encounter.

Luton confirmed on their Twitter account that Berry’s left ankle is dislocated while he is being assessed at Ipswich hospital for a potential fracture and ligament damage.

Jones said: “It’s bad – Luke’s gone over on it and we don’t how he did it. I don’t want to say too much but it looks like a bad injury that’s going to keep him out for a while.

“It’s a sad day because he’s been in great form and he’s a great kid. He’s a wonderful player for us and our best wishes go to him.

“We’ll make sure we look after him and get him back as quickly and safely as we can.”

Colchester head coach John McGreal added: “We wish Luke Berry well – you could see it was bad from the reaction of both their players and ours.”

The players were taken off the pitch by referee Trevor Kettle before the game eventually restarted 11 minutes later, with Luton caught cold as headers from Tom Eastman and Luke Prosser put Colchester in control.

Danny Hylton scored a late penalty consolation for the visitors, who surrendered top spot in Sky Bet League Two to Accrington.

Jones added: “The players were shocked afterwards and it took them time to recover. I had to try and lift them – they were down and one of our players was sick.

“It didn’t bode well but the best thing we could have done for Luke is win the game and that’s what we didn’t do. We didn’t recover and we conceded two goals from set plays and that was basic.”

Colchester have now collected maximum points from their last two games, following last week’s win at Stevenage, while McGreal was delighted to draw a line under recent home defeats to Barnet and Yeovil.

McGreal said: “It was an amazing win and we got the three points that we’ve been desperately trying to get at home, of late.

“We made a brilliant start and we got two set-piece goals and we cut through the top of the league team with our approach play. Some of our football was fantastic and was pleasing to watch.

“We knew what was going to come in the second half, and they did it when they were 2-0 down and got it back to 2-2 at Coventry a couple of weeks ago.

“But I thought that we were quite resolute and showed good shape – I can’t really think of Sam Walker having a shot or anything to save.

“I was thoroughly pleased and it was a great spectacle for League Two, especially with the conditions.”