Doughty a doubt for Boro clash after suffering ankle injury during Cardiff triumph.
Wingback was somehow able to hobble back on for the final seconds
Hatters wingback Alfie Doughty is rated touch and go for Saturday’s trip to Middlesbrough after suffering what initially appeared to be a serious ankle injury during the final moments of last night’s 1-0 victory over Cardiff City.
The 24-year-old had been one of two changes to the Luton XI for the contest as he lined up against a Bluebirds side whom he spent five months on loan with during the second half of the 2021-22 campaign, making nine appearances. After setting up the only goal of the game for Jacob Brown with 57 minutes gone, his pinpoint corner powered into the net by the attacker, Doughty and the rest of the hosts’ defence were doing a fine job in keeping their opponents at arms length during the second period.
However, in the fourth minute of six added on, the ex-Charlton youngster made a block challenge to prevent City from going forward and stayed down clutching his ankle. It looked a bad one at the time with the stretcher called for and Doughty receiving some lengthy treatment, but thankfully he was eventually able to get up and hobble off to the sidelines.
Alfie Doughty suffered an ankle injury during last night’s 1-0 victory over Cardiff City – pic: David Horn / PRiME Media Images
Alfie Doughty suffered an ankle injury during last night’s 1-0 victory over Cardiff City – pic: David Horn / PRiME Media Images
With Town expecting to play the final moments with 10 men having already made their allotted substitutions, the left footer then heroically came back on for the final 90 seconds or so, going alongside Elijah Adebayo in attack despite struggling to put any weight on his ankle. Once the final whistle went, Doughty immediately hit the ground once more, helped off by Town’s medical staff and with such a quick turnaround to the weekend’s match at the Riverside Stadium, will need to be assessed in training.
Speaking afterwards, Edwards conceded he hadn’t thought the wingback was going to come back on, but with the physios giving him the all-clear felt it wasn’t too much of a risk, saying: “He’s sore around his ankle area, so we’ll have to see how it is. At the time I was just apologising as I was saying ‘get him up’ as we didn’t want any more time added on.
“Then he was obviously in a bit of a bad way and soldiered on so we just put him upfront to hobble around. It wasn’t my call, I was getting ready to take him off and play five, four and just defend the last few minutes, but he came back on. It was (a concern when the stretcher came on), so we’ll see how he is now, hopefully he’s okay.”
Asked whether he thought re-entering the fray might have caused him even more damage, Edwards added: “The fact that the physio was saying no he was all right, he was happy for him to go on, gave me a bit of confidence and Alfie himself wanted to do it as well. The player and physio are saying it, go and do it, so we’ll see how he is.”
