Chelsea on swine flu alert as Blackburn confirm five cases of virus

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David Dunn and Chris Samba both missed Saturday's match at Stamford Bridge because of illness, but it emerged this afternoon that a further, unnamed player and two members of staff, one of whom is thought to be the club doctor, are also ill. It is not known if they were present in west London.

When asked if the virus could have been passed on, Blackburn boss Sam Allardyce today admitted: "It's a highly contagious strain as everybody knows but I can't comment on that further."

Allardyce added the club had only decided to play because they were bound to do so by League rules. He said: "We knew we couldn't get the game called off because we were told way back in February or March when we took some guidelines that unless there was some government legislation, everybody had to do whatever they had to do.

"We fulfilled our total, 100 per cent responsibility by confirming two cases of swine flu to the League and suggesting that it looks like one or two other players and members of staff had similar symptoms, and we made the same phone call to Chelsea."