Town boss Kieran McKenna admits Jaden Philogene’s injury “looks like a blow”, the England U21 international having been forced off with a knee problem only four minutes after being introduced from the bench during the 2-2 draw at Chelsea, while explaining why Liam Delap was on the bench and Kalvin Phillips was absent from the squad.
Philogene, 23, jarred his knee in a tackle with home skipper Enzo Fernandez moments after coming on and after trying to continue was helped off the field while unable to put weight on his leg.
"Jaden, it looks like a blow, no doubt. He’s opened up the inside of his knee, so it’ll be scanned,” McKenna said.
"It’s usually the MCL that gets some damage in that sort of tackle. I think he had one on his left side last season, so we’ll get it scanned and see how he is. We’ll be hoping that the damage isn’t too bad.”
Philogene would now seem likely to miss the European U21 Championship in Slovkia in June.
Regarding Delap, who was introduced as a 71st-minute sub, McKenna added: "Liam, as I said before the game, had a rib injury in the last game, so he’s not trained all week.
"He’s been in quite a lot of pain, but he’s a tough boy and his commitment to the club and to the group is top and he wanted to be here and he felt like he could come on and have an impact.
"We didn’t want to risk him in terms of the injury, it would have been a crazy one to start with and I don’t think many players would have put themselves on the pitch, but that was Liam, and it was safe to do so [from the bench], so it was good that he came on and I thought he was a big handful when he came on.”
Phillips, whose season on loan from Manchester City has been punctuated by regular fitness problems, was again absent having only just recovered from having 20-plus stitches to a gash to his foot.
"He’s got an injury to somewhere near his achilles,” the Blues boss continued. "It’s been an unfortunate run for him, he had the cut that he sustained in the Nottingham Forest game and now he’s picked up an injury in and around the achilles area. Not available today and we’ll see how it goes.”