Hatters boss hopeful over Bramall's injury but felt VAR would have led to a red

Hatters boss Jack Wilshere is keeping his fingers crossed that Cohen Bramall’s injury suffered against Blackpool this afternoon isn’t as bad as first feared as he also felt had VAR been involved then it would have led to a red card for the visitors’ Oliver Casey.

With the second half not quite 10 minutes old, the Town winger latched on to Joe Johnson’s backheel on the left flank, when he was the victim of a strong challenge by Casey, who got the ball first, but then took out the ex-Arsenal youngster in his follow through. It went unpunished by referee Martin Woods, as when receiving extensive treatment from the physios, it was clear Bramall couldn’t continue, wincing every time any pressure was applied to his ankle.

Asked for an immediate update on the injury, Wilshere said: “I just spoke to him (Bramall) then, honestly I don’t know. He’s got a massive cut down his leg and on his ankle. Hopefully it’s just that and he’ll be okay, but you never know until you get the scan or the x-ray, I don’t know what the medical people do. Not a good tackle in my opinion, but hopefully he’s okay.”

While Bramall was receiving treatment, there were words exchanged between both benches as Wilshere was eager to let opposite number Ian Evatt know his thoughts about the incident. The Hatters boss clearly thought the centre half was lucky to stay on the field, adding: “Listen, the first thing is if VAR looks at it, it’s a red card, but I also understand that this is League One.

"The bar’s slightly higher for tackles like that, but I still think as much as we can we have to protect the players. I’m quite passionate about that as obviously I was a player who had a lot of injuries. I love a player to go in tough and win duels and try and be tough in those moments, but there’s also a line, so that’s all I was saying to him.”