Millwall boss reveals that new signing may not feature against Charlton Athletic

Millwall’s new signing Casper de Norre may not feature in tomorrow night’s friendly against Charlton at The Den.

The Lions landed midfielder De Norre from OH Leuven for an undisclosed fee at the end of last week with centre-back Wes Harding, a free agent after turning down a new deal at Rotherham, also completing a switch.

“We’re waiting on visas for Casper and clearance,” said Rowett, whose side played a behind-closed-doors match against Bournemouth on Saturday. “Casper has played pre-season games and trained quite a lot – so if he is available for the game then he will get good minutes.

“Wes has only trained Friday, that is his only ballwork, and the 20 minutes he came on against Bournemouth which, if I’m being honest, was probably too soon. We decided to do it anyway, to get him involved. He’ll get some minutes but I wouldn’t want to play him for too long because of the conditioning risk and injury risk. He’ll probably be used a little more sporadically until we feel he’s got enough training time for us to risk him.

“He hasn’t sprinted and played more than 15-20 minutes intensively.”

Danny McNamara (quad) could be back for Fortuna Sittard on Saturday.

Centre-back Jake Cooper had an issue in the same area on Friday but is expected to feature against the Addicks after training this morning.

Rowett comes up against one of his former clubs tomorrow. He signed for Charlton in 2002 from Leicester but injury prevented him from making an impact.

The Addicks are under new ownership after Global Football Partners completed a deal on Friday.

“Dean (Holden, manager) and the guys there did really well last season under difficult circumstances, with all the takeover talk,” said Rowett. “It’s never easy, is it?

“As a Millwall manager I’m always loathe to say someone is a really big club when they are one of your local rivals for fear of being vilified by your own fans! But, having played there, they are a club that had been in the Premier League for quite a number of years.

“I’m sure their plan is not to stay in League One for very long but it is a competitive division.

“A takeover gives you clarity and maybe some funds to push on. I think if Dean is given that opportunity it will be interesting to see how they get on this season. They had some good loans players last year and made some good signings. They showed really good signs. I did a few of their games for TV and they were impressive in some of those games. I suppose just consistency is the challenge.

“I’m sure they’ll be looking to have a very good season. It’s good for a local club, whether it is rivals or not, to have clarity. Hopefully they can move forward.

“I know everyone would love me to say it’s got so much more edge. If it’s a league game then there is the edge. We’ve seen that in games with incredible atmospheres. The players are aware it is a local team and you have got to perform. I don’t think you have quite the same edge in a pre-season game – the football is less physical and frenetic because you haven’t got 15,000 or 20,000 fans creating the atmosphere.”