Millwall injury news and Gary Rowett’s plan for two friendly matches before Championship resumes

Shaun Hutchinson looks set to feature in Millwall’s friendly against Brondby at The Den today as well as a behind-closed-doors tune-up on Tuesday.

The Lions are building up to next Saturday’s Championship match at Sunderland.

Millwall have not played since a 4-2 win at Preston on November 12. England’s second tier has shut down for a short period to coincide with the World Cup commencing in Qatar.

Hutchinson has been out with a hamstring injury since October.

“Hutchy has been training,” Lions boss Gary Rowett told the South London Press. “He’s made really good progress at the start of this week. We did a little bit of internal 11 v 11 on Wednesday to replicate that game play, as close as we can to get the feel of being in one, and he’s been involved in that.

“He’ll be involved in the games leading up to Sunderland. At this moment in time he should well be available.”

Benik Afobe has been out with a knee injury which required an injection.

“He’s making good progress out on the pitches but he’s not in training yet,” said Rowett.

“I’d imagine he’s not a million miles away from doing a little bit more next week but I think the two friendly games are going to come a bit too quickly for him.

“We’ve got one planned for Tuesday which will be behind closed doors.”

Millwall have a slightly shorter break after slotting in the Sunderland match, which was postponed due to the death of Queen Elizabeth II.

The Lions do not have any players at the World Cup.

“For us it is about minimising the gap between games,” said Rowett. “There will be a lot of teams who go two or three weeks without playing a semi-competitive game.

“Because we play our game a week early it is a week less for us. We play Brondby, which a lot of other teams will be doing the same. If you count that as a competitive game, which we’ve tried to make it feel like that with a crowd at The Den and a good opposition, then in a way it makes it feel like a normal international break.

“It doesn’t necessarily give you an advantage. It just means we can try and keep a bit more continuity.

“The easiest thing to do would be to go and pick the team on Saturday who played the last game but I don’t think it is quite as simple as that. There are other players who have been unfortunate not to play between that game and an internal game on Tuesday. We’ll try and probably mix it up a little bit and give everyone minutes in both games so that rather than feel you’ve got a 90 minutes, you feel like you’ve had two games.

“It would feel like a Saturday-Tuesday-Saturday in some ways without playing 95-plus minutes. Recovery won’t be an issue.”