Luton Town sweating on key injury update ahead of Middlesbrough clash | OneFootball

Alfie Doughty picked up an injury in the closing stages of Luton's win over Cardiff on Wednesday, and is a doubt for the trip to Teesside on Saturday.

Alfie Doughty was able to soldier on through evident pain after suffering a blow to his ankle in the closing stages of Luton Town's 1-0 win over Cardiff City on Wednesday night, but now the wing-back is a major doubt for the visit to Middlesbrough on Saturday.

The Hatters star made an important challenge deep into added time at the end of the game to prevent Cardiff from launching an attack, but went down grasping at his ankle afterwards.

Kenilworth Road held its breath, as the stretcher was called for, but to the relief of everyone of a Luton persuasion, the 24-year-old - who had provided the assist for what would be the winning goal earlier in the second half - was just about able to walk off the pitch with some support from medical staff.

With Rob Edwards no doubt expecting his side would have to see out the final minutes with 10 men, Doughty made a miraculous re-entry to the game. However, as soon as referee Matt Donohue blew the full-time whistle, he dropped to the floor once again.

Luton now face a short turnaround as they prepare to make the journey up to Teesside on Saturday, with the availability of one of their key players hanging firmly in the balance.

Doughty 'touch and go' for Boro

Despite seeing his side pick up a vital three points, the major fallout from the game for Edwards was undoubtedly the health of his star wing-back.

Speaking post-match via Luton Today, Edwards said: "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."

Edwards was then asked whether coming back into the game after evidently carrying an injury may have caused additional damage to his ankle, to which the Luton boss replied: "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."

Edwards may need to rejig his defence on Saturday

The severity of his injury will be assessed at the training ground over the next couple of days, but if Doughty can't make the trip to Middlesbrough, Edwards will have to formulate a new plan as to how to set his defense up at the Riverside.

Luton deploy a 3-4-1-2 formation, with Doughty operating as the left wing-back, and so that is where someone will have to fill in on Saturday if he is ruled out.

Teden Mengi, Mark McGuinness and Amari'i Bell made up the back three in the Hatters' victory over Cardiff, but the latter of those can and has operated as a left-wing back on previous occasions.

Reece Burke and Mads Juel Andersen have both been sidelined through injury for a number of weeks, and whilst they both appear close to a return, Saturday may come to soon for both of them.

Daiki Hashioka can operate as a central defender, but he's been starring at right wing-back in recent games, so Edwards will likely want to keep him in that position for the foreseeable future.

Reuell Walters suffered a broken foot in Luton's 2-0 defeat to Sheffield United in early October, and won't be back until the new year,. That leaves two most likely options; Joseph Johnson and Tom Holmes.

The 18-year-old Johnson has only made two appearances in the Championship so far this season, whilst 24-year-old Holmes has made five. The latter is the more experienced defender, and was on the bench on Wednesday evening.

That would suggest that he would be the favourite to come into the starting XI this weekend if Bell is moved into Doughty's role, but Edwards may well spring a surprise.

Doughty plays a pivotal role in Luton's system, and he's without doubt one of the best wing-backs in the Championship, and so everyone connected with the Hatters will hope he's avoided a long-term injury.