Charlie Patino was forced off early in Blackpool’s match against his former club Luton Town due to an illness that’s been affecting him this week.

Ahead of Blackpool’s match against Luton Town on Saturday, head coach Michael Appleton confirmed that Charlie Patino had been struggling with illness all week.

“He’s still suffering a little bit, he’s not trained (since Tuesday night),” Appleton said. “He’s still not great, but we will obviously assess him this morning and see where he’s at.

“He got wiped out a little bit with this bug. We’ve got him on antibiotics but it will be a 50/50 call at this stage, maybe even less depending how he is this morning.”

In the end, Appleton evidently decided to risk it, putting Patino into his starting lineup. The midfielder played well enough, with LancsLive writing that he was “probably the only player in the first half to try and make things happen in possession”.

Yet the effects of his illness quickly caught up with the teenager, and he was forced off at half-time. Matt Scrafton writes that Patino couldn’t continue due to a lack of energy.

The timing is a real shame, as Blackpool were playing against Patino’s old club. The Arsenal youngster signed for Luton at the age of seven – before moving to Arsenal at 11 – and Luton were his boyhood team as a fan.

Coming off at half-time isn’t how Patino would have envisioned his reunion with Luton, and Blackpool went on to concede in the second half to lose 1-0.

But the upside is that illness absences rarely last very long. Patino may well even be involved for Blackpool again next week, as they face Middlesbrough on Tuesday and Wigan Athletic on Saturday.