Millwall duo both battling on with knocks – but Mason Bennett set to be available for Watford

Millwall manager Gary Rowett has revealed that Jed Wallace and Scott Malone are both playing on with slight injury issues.

The Lions only have three matches left to play in the Championship – starting with Saturday’s trip to Watford.

The South London club have a lengthy injury list that includes Shaun Hutchinson, Ryan Leonard, Matt Smith, Murray Wallace, Shane Ferguson and Ben Thompson – all of whom will not feature again before the season is finished.

Mason Bennett is expected to be fit enough to feature at Vicarage Road despite a tight calf. He was an unused sub in Wednesday’s 4-1 loss to Bournemouth at The Den.

“We started Ken [Zohore] after one day of training [before Bournemouth] so we’ll have to see how he responds,” said Rowett. “You can see there was a lack of match fitness there, so we have to hope on that one.

“Scott Malone has been playing on with various different problems but has just tried to get through it. Jed is the same, he had a tight calf.

“Mase felt his calf and I didn’t want to risk him. I thought about putting him on at a certain point of the game but when you are 3-0 down I thought ‘let’s save him for another day’.

“We want to try and be competitive and we have to make sensible long-term decisions as well which might compromise the odd thing or two. I think Mase will be fine for the weekend.”

The absence of Murray Wallace, Hutchinson and Leonard has left Millwall with three recognised centre-backs – George Evans, Alex Pearce and Jake Cooper.

But Rowett has already spoken about his ideal plan being to play Evans, signed from Derby in the last window, in the middle of the park.

“Before the last international break I thought we would get Murray and Lenny back,” said the Millwall chief. “Hutch was available then too. If you have those three available then your options are essentially pretty boundless in terms of what you can do.

“So that [not having them to pick] has been incredibly frustrating. Lenny has shown he can play the right-sided centre-back role with a little bit of mobility and also an advanced midfield role and be a bit of a goal threat. We’ve not had either of those options.

“It meant we had that extra player to flip about. George was that player. But now he’s in a back three or back two when ideally I want him in midfield.”

Leonard, 28, has not featured since sustaining ankle damage against Sheffield Wednesday in early February.

“I think he is going to see a specialist in the next few days just to ascertain whether they might need to go in and have another look,” explained Rowett. “We don’t forsee it is a long-term issue. But in the short term he is not ready.”