Millwall boss provides injury update on Tom Elliott and reviews Blackburn Rovers game

BY RICHARD CAWLEY

Millwall are waiting to discover the full extent of Tom Elliott’s shoulder injury – but an initial scan has revealed no broken bones.

The big forward went down in the opening moment’s of Saturday’s 2-0 loss to Blackburn Rovers with a dislocated left shoulder.

Lions boss Neil Harris said: “He has had an X-ray and there is no broken bone.

“It’s frustrating, Tom has done really well for us in the sense he is a handful. He’s one of the best in the division in terms of first contacts in both penalty areas and he helps us get up the park.

“It was a big blow to lose him. Stevie [Morison] has been in great form coming off the bench. But it was a big ask for him to come on and play 90 minutes on the back of some impact sub appearances.

“Tom and Aiden [O’Brien] have proven they are not a bad combination and give us something different. Maybe Steve and Aiden there is not enough of a mix there.

‘We just maybe lacked a little bit of impetus, presence and power up front at the weekend.

“He’ll have a scan today [Monday] or first thing tomorrow morning [Tuesday] to find the extent of the damage. The fact he wasn’t able to put it back in place for 45 minutes makes the tissue extremely damage.

“He is going to be out for a period of time, how long that is we don’t know at this time.”

One positive to emerge from the weekend’s loss was the return of Lee Gregory. The Lions’ top-scorer only ended up missing two matches with a hamstring injury.

“Lee was a good week ahead of schedule,” said Harris. “He only trained on Friday and the day before a game it was a lighter session.

“We thought 20 to 30 minutes was a maximum timeframe in the game before it became very dangerous in terms of getting re-injured.

“It was great to get him back out there, even if the result was a disappointment.”

Harris watched back the Rovers game on Sunday afternoon. It ended a four-match winning streak.

“We’ve had a great few weeks and then that sort of takes us back to where we’ve been at the last few months,” he said. “The ricochet goal, you can’t re-enact that.

“James [Meredith] makes a great clearance, hits Hutch [Shaun Hutchinson] then hits the boy on the ear and goes in the goal. That is a strange turn of events. And that was their first shot on target – if you can call it that.

“Before that they’ve had a header go over the bar from a corner. They have only got in our penalty area four times and Jordan [Archer] has not touched the ball other than routine pick ups or goal kicks.

“We didn’t really do enough to win the game. We dominated virtually the whole match – possession-wise and territory. We put in nigh on 20 crosses into the box and had no real end product.

“Lots on us to work on there but we certainly didn’t deserve to lose the game. That’s the frustration for all of us – we should have at least come away with a 0-0 draw.

“There was a little bit of a lack of firepower and productivity.

“We knew it was going to be that sort of game. We knew Blackburn are probably the most high-energy team in the division. We knew their approach is a little bit like us – with the ability to play but also go direct.

“We knew we had to play front foot and aggressive, and we did. We outcompeted a good Blackburn team at times but didn’t show enough nous or quality on the ball in terms of an end product.

“I was really pleased with a lot of aspects of it but ultimately we got undone by switching off and getting hurt by a Championship side.”