Ben Thompson on his chances of being fit to fully start Millwall’s pre-season training

BY RICHARD CAWLEY

richard@slpmedia.co.uk

Ben Thompson is reporting no niggles as he steps up his rehab from a badly torn hamstring.

The Millwall midfielder missed the closing weeks of the campaign.

Thompson, who recently signed a new long-term contract with the Lions, suffered the injury against Stoke City after he was bundled over as he raced on to a ball over the top.

“It was a grade three tear of the hamstring,” said the Millwall man. “It was quite a bad one. But I’m back out running on the grass now and it feels fine, it feels like nothing is there.

“I think I was pushed and it made me stretch my hamstring a little bit too much. It was more the push than me running fast.

“To be fair it felt like cramp at first. But we’d only been playing for 35 minutes and I was thinking there is no way it can be cramp. When I ran back on from the sideline it didn’t feel right, it was really sore.

“There was an option of surgery but we decided not to take that, that the best route was to let it heal – that the way it was torn put me in a good position to recover. Over time it has slowly healed and for the last three or four weeks I haven’t felt it at all.

“I’ve maybe had two weeks holiday but I’m coming in probably three times a week.

“I feel good in myself that I can do that [be back in full training on the opening day of pre-season]. I’m doing all the sports science stuff and progressing it, slowly getting back up to speed again.”