Burnley boss Vincent Kompany not rushing injured players

The Clarets go to Vicarage Road looking to maintain their unbeaten start, against a side who were relegated with them from the Premier League.

But while the Hornets have retained most of their key players, Burnley have had a a summer of churn like no other, with a dozen senior professionals departing, and 10 coming in, to date.

Kompany would like to add more, but he has also been frustrated with some niggles his squad have collected.

Summer signing Scott Twine has not started either game so far, making a late cameo at Huddersfield Town – hitting the post with a free kick – before not making the 18 on Saturday against Luton.

Kompany has spoken about managing Twine’s workload as he steps up from MK Dons in League One, and he explained: “He has struggled a little bit since the beginning of pre-season, and I can't tell you exactly how many games he will be out for, but it is not a big one.

"It is just making sure he is 100% before he comes in.”And in the case of established squad player Jay Rodriguez, who has an unspecified problem, missing both games so far, Kompany added: “We will see, he is nearly back in training, but the weeks we have coming up, I won't rush people into the squad, and I am extremely careful with that.

"My priority is to have numbers for a big period of games.”