Alfie Doughty has been ruled out for the remainder of the season, while boss Matt Bloomfield said he has to “adjust” and be “open-minded” about his Luton team to face Blackburn Rovers tomorrow after some illness in the squad.
The wing back is the second Hatter in a week to have his campaign curtailed early after Elijah Adebayo underwent surgery to fix a damaged anterior cruciate ligament problem in his knee, which was sustained in last Saturday’s 1-1 draw with Leeds United.
Doughty, 25, returned from two-and-a-half months on the sidelines in November, but his latest setback was brought about by an innocuous-looking challenge where he immediately reached for his hamstring.
“Alf’s out for the season,” Hatters manager Matt Bloomfield said, adding: “It’s another big blow for us because Alf, I believe, was just getting himself properly fit.
“He had his injury and he was working his way back to full fitness. It’s a really demanding position, that wing back position and, physically, it was demanding on him.
“I felt like he was again very good against Leeds on Saturday and it’s such a shame that we’ve lost him for the season. But, again, have to adjust.”
Some of that may be elsewhere in the squad as the manager revealed: “We’ve had a little bit of illness in the camp this week, so we’re we’re having to be open-minded about the team for tomorrow. That can’t be confirmed because of the situation.
“But you’re constantly happen to adjust to the situation in front of you. That’s football management, that’s life and it keeps us alive, right?
“It’s part of the fun and you have to be continually ready. If you’re too stuck in your ways, you can get left behind and I feel like you’ve got to be continually open-minded and be ready to adjust at any moment.”
Though Doughty and Adebayo join Jacob Brown on the season-ending injury list, Luton have had things significantly worse this season and last, so, going into the home clash with Blackburn Rovers tomorrow, there’s a sense that these new issues are not as damaging as they have been before.
Bloomfield said: “It’s a confident building. It’s a building full of belief, and there’s been players champing at the bit to play more minutes that maybe haven’t had the minutes that they believed that they wanted and deserved.
“Football’s all about taking those hits when they come. We’re without a few really big players at the moment, but we have a group that we believe in and we have players that we believe can come in and pick up the baton and run with it.
“At times it might be adjusting the shape slightly, like we did on Tuesday evening, because we don’t have enough Eli.
“So, we have to make sure we have a plan B and be ready to adjust accordingly. We’re disappointed for him and we’re feeling it for him and we’re feeling it for Alf and Jacob [Brown], but we’ve got work to do and we have to concentrate on that as well.”
Part of the optimistic outlook has been the goalscoring, point-winning impact that Millenic Alli had when he replaced Doughty after 17 minutes at Stoke on Tuesday.
Bloomfield said: “One door closes and another one opens, right? That’s the game that we’re involved in. Milli’s been really, biding this time very very patiently. Hasn’t knocked on my door once, but he’s shown his hunger in his training. He hasn’t moaned hasn’t grizzled, hasn’t dropped his shoulders, just been going about his work every day waiting for his opportunity.
“I have so much belief in Milli, so much belief. I watched him at Exeter a few times and I just knew that there was a proper player in there.
“And when he came, we wanted to give him the opportunity to step up a level. I think it’s been quite a big jump in the last couple of years for him, but he grabbed his opportunity on Tuesday evening, I thought he was absolutely excellent.
“We were asking him just to be positive because he’s got so much attacking instinct. He can go both ways. He’s got pace and power and he’s got that close control when [he had] a couple of other opportunities where he’s dribbled through.
“We want to have that attacking aspect about our game. We want to take the game to our opposition as much as we possibly can and I thought he grabbed his opportunity, and I’m really pleased for him.”
Alli’s emergence and the return of Tahith Chong, plus Kal Naismith having to bide his time on the bench, will soften the blow of Doughty’s absence.
Bloomfield said: “We have got options. Tahith played there last Saturday, Millie came on there on Tuesday evening and Amari’i Bell can step forward into that position with Kal [Naismith] behind him, so we do have a few different options that we can we can use.”
And the manager may also have midfielder Marvelous Nakmba to pick from as the Zimbabwean is now available after recovering from a knee injury, which has kept him out since late November.
However, Bloomfield cautioned: “He’s only had limited training this week because we’ve been on the road up to Stoke and he’s been part of a smaller group.
“He trained with a group this morning was fine there’s a possibility he could be involved tomorrow. We’ve just got one or two illnesses that we just need to check on overnight and then the squad could be finalised tomorrow morning once we know the outlook on those.”
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