Gary Megson, the Bolton Wanderers manager, has confirmed that four members of his squad have recovered after contracting swine flu.

Yesterday, Blackburn Rovers revealed three of their players and two of their backroom staff have also been suffering from the illness.

Bolton's opponents in the Carling Cup fourth round tomorrow are Chelsea, whose last match was against Blackburn in the Barclays Premier League on Saturday.

Blackburn's Chris Samba and David Dunn were ruled out of the 5-0 defeat at Stamford Bridge on Saturday, and Sam Allardyce, the Blackburn manager, suggested there was a chance the virus could have been passed on to Chelsea's players.

But Megson insisted he was not concerned about the virus spreading during a match.

Asked if he was worried about his players coming into contact with Chelsea's, Megson said: "Not from that perspective because I've heard varying opinions and I think the one we all need to listen to is that from the medical people, who are saying that it is very difficult, if not impossible, to contract it in that way.

"From our own point of view, you're not going to be a business with quite a few employees and it totally escapes you.

"You are going to get one or two with swine flu and I think on the playing staff I think we have had five, four players and one member of staff. You try and do your best to avoid it but I would imagine it's near enough impossible.

"They are all okay at the moment, but it wouldn't be right to start giving you names."

Allardyce questioned the wisdom of the Premier League letting Saturday's match at Stamford Bridge go ahead after Blackburn informed them of their first two cases of swine flu.

He said: "They know that we went through the right procedures and that we did not call it off because we couldn't."