'Not great' - Luton chief assess Adebayo's injury after Town striker hobbles off

Luton boss Matt Bloomfield admitted the injury to Elijah Adebayo didn’t look good after the striker had to go off early in the second half of Town’s 1-1 draw against Leeds United this afternoon.

The forward had looked back to something like his best at times in the first period, as he had a massive role in Town’s opening goal, found by Liam Walsh who won possession back just outside his own area and then setting off from inside his own half, easily shrugging midfielder Ao Tanaka off the ball. He then picked out the overlapping run of Jordan Clark who was able to hold up Joe Rodon and then tease over an excellent cross that saw Izzy Jones volley home at the far post.

Adebayo only had one attempt himself, that a half chance, when meeting Carlton Morris’s flick-on, the recalled Karl Darlow saving easily, but with the second period just four minutes old, the forward went down in what looked like a nothing incident, as after some extensive treatment, he then hobbled off and was replaced by Tahith Chong.

Asked for his initial observations, Bloomfield said: “He’s got some ice on his knee so we’ll have to see how that settles down. It’s not nice to lose Eli as I thought he was playing particularly well, really carrying a threat. I thought he was full of energy and him and Carlton provide a real good front pairing for us, so we’ll have to let that settle down and see how he is. It looked innocuous which is not great. I don’t think it was a contact one, but again we can’t jump to conclusions, we’ll let that settle down and see how he is.”

With Adebayo having to take his place on the bench, Chong was brought on for his second outing since returning from a lengthy hamstring injury that had kept him out of action for two months. He started off in a more advanced role behind Morris, before dropping back to the left wingback position after a triple substitution that saw Lasse Nordas, Millenic Alli and Lamie Fanne all brought on.

On his impact, Bloomfield continued: “We wanted to get him and Thelo (Aasgaard) around Carlton to give us that fresh legs and his dribbling with his one v one ability and then we moved him to wingback, but we do feel like Chongy can give us that attacking impetus. It’s where we think he carries that strength and for 10-15 minutes I thought him and Thelo off Carlton worked really, really well. As the game progressed we needed to make more changes but it’s a position that we do see Chongy in.”

The move almost paid off as it was Aasgaard who was freed in the area by Amari’i Bell’s pass and managed to get a shot away that saw Darlow parry away to safety as the boss added: “He’s got that little bit of one v one magic doesn’t he Thelo. He loves that little left half space and he cuts inside and unfortunately it didn’t quite get underneath the goalie’s hand. He gets down really well and parries it, we haven’t got anyone there for a tap-in. Thelo’s got a little bit of magic, we’ve seen that, in his feet, but I thought he was very good today.”