Third key Luton player is ruled out of Hatters' relegation run-in due to injury

Luton wingback Alfie Doughty has been ruled out for the rest of the season after suffering a hamstring injury during Tuesday night’s 1-1 draw at his former side Stoke City.

The 25-year-old, who missed over two months of the campaign due to ankle ligament damage picked up in the closing stages of the 1-0 victory over Cardiff City back in November, had managed to return to full fitness shortly after Bloomfield was appointed, scoring in the 1-1 draw at Sheffield Wednesday and starting Luton’s last 10 Championship encounters.

With 15 minutes gone at the bet365 Stadium in midweek, Doughty went into a strong challenge by the touch-line, but ended up coming off worse, sitting on the turf and eventually hobbling off after treatment. His chances of playing again this term didn’t look good, and with there being just five games left of the campaign, Bloomfield confirmed he wouldn’t be featuring again in the battle to stay up, saying: “Alf’s out for the season, he’s done his hamstring.

"It’s another big blow for us, as 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 wingback position and physically it was demanding on him. I felt like he was very good against Leeds on Saturday and it’s such a shame that we’ve lost him for the season but we have to adjust.”

Asked on the severity of the injury, and how long it might keep him out, Bloomfield continued: “I’m not sure the true extent at the moment. I know his season’s done, that was the first information I was looking for. Now they’re just going to go and get the scan read and make sure they know the full extent of it, how long that will take, but it’s a miss for us.”

Although Doughty’s absence will be keenly felt by the Hatters, who are also without Jacob Brown and Elijah Adebayo for the rest of the campaign they do have options available to take his place, Bloomfield saying: “We have. Tahith (Chong) played there last Saturday, Milli (Alli) came on Tuesday evening, Amari’i Bell can step forward in that position with Kal Naismith behind him, so we do have a few options we can use.

“It’s a confident building, it’s a building full of belief and there’s been players chomping at the bit to play more minutes that maybe haven’t had the minutes that they believed they deserved. Football’s all about taking those hits when they come. We’re without a few really big players at the moment but we’ve got a group we believe in and 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 another Eli, so we have to make sure we have a plan B and adjust accordingly. We’re disappointed and we’re feeling it for him and feeling it for Alf and Jacob, but we’ve got work to do and we have to concentrate on that.”