Millwall boss provides Covid-19 update on squad – as he expects to be able to field side at Swansea

Gary Rowett expects Millwall to be able to field a team at Swansea on Boxing Day.

The Lions had seen last weekend’s home game against Preston North End postponed after suffering a Covid-19 outbreak.

The South London club had 12 players in training when they resumed yesterday.

“We’re a mixed group at the moment,” Rowett told the South London Press. “That’s the difficult bit. We came back yesterday after a bit of a circuit break, which is not ideal.

“Players did some work remotely that we can log and make sure everyone has done it. It’s important people keep ticking over and doing their work but it is not quite the same.

“We had about 11 train yesterday with one injured player semi joining in to a session. The challenge is always the same, if you have got someone with Covid then some players can do a little bit of light training in their houses, because they have got access to facilities, and some players are ill and can’t do anything.

“We’ve got quite a few that might be out of isolation on Thursday but we’ve got some still with symptoms, so they probably won’t be out of isolation on Thursday.

“I think we’ll be in a position to field a team, at this moment in time, provided we don’t get any more positive results. We’ve had a couple more staff positives but you can isolate the staff – they aren’t quite as important.

“Every day it changes. I read a little bit from one of the Premier League managers and he said he couldn’t pick his team until the day of the game and limited to what work he can do on the team. Every club is going to be in a very similar position.

“Over half the games were off in the Football League and Premier League, it clearly shows you football is no different to society and that cases are massively rising.

“We’ve just got to crack on through as best we can.”

Postponements due to Covid have seen the Swans not play since December 11.

The EFL issued a statement yesterday stating their intent for fixtures to continue over the festive period.

“It’s a really difficult quandary,” said Rowett. “Do you lockdown everyone over Christmas and New Year to limit the spread, which maybe cancels two or three games? The problem with that is you then come back and it’s still around – then games are still cancelled.

“The only solution is probably to try and crack on as safely as you can. We’re now getting tested every day but we’ve had players who have been fine on a test and three days later have flagged up positive. There are still some vagaries around that.

“You have to accept that if you have a really weakened team then unfortunately you have to go out there and get on with it, do the best you can. One team might have a full squad and one team might have 10 players missing. It’s clearly not going to be a level playing field but, at the same time, we want to crack on with the season for now. It seems to be the only plausible solution.”