Mason Bennett’s Championship campaign not over as scan results provide positive news for Millwall attacker

Mason Bennett’s season is not set to be over after scans revealed the Millwall attacker suffered ankle ligament damage – not a fracture – against Sunderland.

The 26-year-old was stretchered off in the 1-1 draw with the Black Cats on February 4.

“Your first concern is that it is a big injury – like a cruciate – when you see a player go down and waving straight away,” Lions manager Gary Rowett told the South London Press. “Then you see that he has rolled his ankle after treading on the lad’s leg and you wonder if he has broken it.

“The first X-ray looked like a break in the ankle and you’re waiting to find out the damage to the ligaments. It didn’t seem particularly good. But then the specialist has had another look and they think it is an old fracture, I’m not sure if that still shows up (on scans).

“It doesn’t feel positive but I suppose it is, in comparison to being out for nine or 12 months – or whatever a horrendous injury would be. It looks more likely to be eight to 10 weeks from the initial injury. He has got to remain in a boot for another 10 days and then build back up slowly.

“With the season the way it is, it still feels like that is a big chunk and a big blow, but for Mason it is not as bad as he first feared.

“Mase is a pretty positive lad.

“It’s ironic. I had a conversation two or three weeks before the injury saying I felt that I’d held him back a little bit – worried about not overdoing it with him. I don’t think he’s managed to find that form, because of that. So I said: ‘I’m going to chuck you in and see where we get to, let’s build your games up – you might need to have a bad game or look a bit fatigued to get the fitness in and the positives’.

“Two games later he does a very unfortunate action on the pitch to get injured.

“He was down at the start. I think there is an option with his contract and, of course, you start thinking about that and your situation. He has been so unlucky, you can only imagine it puts you in a place of thinking ‘flipping heck, not injured again’. It’s a good group and Mase is a popular lad, they will get around him.

“There is not much else you can do. I’ve been on the end of a two-year injury that essentially finished my career. What do you do? Do you sit there moping and crying or do you man up and just get on with it? You make the best of the situation.”