Bristol City team news ahead of Luton Town as Liam Manning shares Nahki Wells injury update | Bristol Live

Nahki Wells missed Bristol City's 2-0 defeat to West Brom at The Hawthorns this weekend through injury

Liam Manning has confirmed that Bristol City will have to wait and see how Nahki Wells responds before deciding if the forward is fit and ready to feature against Luton Town on Boxing Day.

The Robins welcome Rob Edwards' side to Ashton Gate on Thursday afternoon as they look to end a four-match winless run having been well beaten by West Brom at The Hawthorns on Sunday.

Luton have only lost one of their last four games and make the trip to the West Country with momentum behind them having scored twice late on against Derby County last time out to secure a 2-1 win over Paul Warne's Rams.

Wells missed the Reds' defeat to the Baggies at the weekend with what was understood to be a minor issue and while the exact nature of the problem remains unclear, Manning confirmed the 34-year-old had done some work on the training ground on Monday morning.

"Nahki's been out on the grass and feels ok today," Manning said in his pre-match press conference. "Hopefully, if he responds right, we can get him back in the group training on Christmas Day. But again, you have to wait and see how he responds to the work that he's done."

In Wells' absence, Fally Mayulu led the line against Carlos Corberan's side on Sunday, with the 22-year-old handed what was only his second Championship start of the season with Sinclair Armstrong also ruled out through injury.

The Irishman is still understood to be a few weeks away from returning to the fold, with Manning admitting City would have to be a "little bit careful" with the striker given his "explosive" and "powerful" style of play.

On a more positive note, the Robins boss did reveal that both Kal Naismith and Mark Sykes are getting closer to taking part in first-team training. Neither player has featured since the defeat to Sheffield United before the November international break but the hope is they will both feature sooner rather than later.

"Much closer. They were out again today so I'm hoping to see them back in team training soon," explained Manning. "They're definitely moving in the right direction. I was disappointed for Syksey because I really thought he'd hit a bit of form.

"Coming on away at Swansea and then a couple of games after that, I thought he really hit a level where he was showing what he's capable of and I was looking forward to him producing some really high-level moments. I was disappointed for us as a team, but also for him personally because he was doing well so I'm sure he'll come back hungry and ready to hit that level."

Although the weekend's defeat to West Brom was frustrating for several reasons, one of the few positives to come from Bristol City's trip to the Black Country was the return of George Tanner to the matchday squad. The right-back hadn't featured since the Reds' win over Preston at Deepdale and while he didn't get on against the Baggies, he offered some much-needed defensive depth.

Manning insists the 25-year-old will come into contention against the Hatters on Boxing Day, but admits the Robins will have to manage his return sensibly over the busy festive period.

"George could do some minutes," said the City boss. "Naturally, when you've been out for a little while, when you come back you have to be a little cautious. But we also trust in the work that the boys do to get back fit. They do a lot of conditioning work so George will come into contention. It's then just a case of when you've got so many games coming up, what does that look like?

"You can't go from playing no minutes for six, or seven weeks to all of a sudden doing 90 minutes and 90 minutes in the space of a week. They're the bits that we have to look at. But ultimately for me, everything goes into trying to pick a team to win on Boxing Day."