Bout of illness at Kenilworth Road means Bloomfield will delay naming his Luton XI to face Blackburn

Luton boss Matt Bloomfield will delay naming his team to face Blackburn Rovers at Kenilworth Road tomorrow, in what is a massive match to determine the Hatters’ Championship status, due to a bout of illness at Kenilworth Road.

Town will definitely be forced into at least one change to their match-day squad after Alfie Doughty was ruled out for the rest of the season with a hamstring injury, but it might be that the wingback isn’t the only player missing out for a game that the Hatters simply have to win to boost their chances of staying up this term.

Speaking to the press this afternoon, Bloomfield said: “The game of football is continually throwing things up at you. We’ve had a little bit of illness in the camp this week so we’ve had to be open-minded about the team tomorrow and that can’t be confirmed because of the situation. You’re constantly having to adjust to the situation in front of you. That’s football management, that’s life and it keeps you alive right, you have to be continually ready. If you're too stuck in your ways, you can get left behind and I feel like you have to be continually open-minded and you have to be ready to adjust at any moment.”

One player who could potentially return to the match-day squad is midfielder Marvelous Nakamba, who has been absent since the 2-0 defeat to Watford on February 23. Bloomfield continued: “He’s fit and available, but he’s only had limited training this week as we’ve been on the road up to Stoke. He’s been part of a smaller group, his training this morning was fine, so there’s a possibility he can be involved tomorrow. We’ve just got one or two illnesses we need to check on overnight and then the squad can be finalised tomorrow morning once we know.”

Although Luton are without Doughty, his replacement on Tuesday night, Milli Alli, showed that Town might well be able to cope with his absence, as he terrorised the Potters defence in the second half, scoring an all-important equaliser in the first minute of stoppage time. Bloomfield added: “One door closes another one opens right, that’s the game we’re involved in.

"Milli’s been really biding his time very patiently, hasn't knocked on my door once but he’s shown his hunger in his training, 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 just knew that there was a proper player in there. 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 and he’s got so much attacking instinct. He’s got pace and power, got that close control. He had a couple of other opportunities where he’s dribbled through and 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.”