Millwall boss Harris feels Burnley loanee striker still has ‘five to 10 per cent’ more to come

Millwall head coach Neil Harris believes there is another “five to 10 per cent” to draw out of Michael Obafemi after the Burnley loanee completed his second successive 90-minute runout before the international break.

The Republic of Ireland international has scored once in eight Championship outings since making the switch to The Den.

But Obafemi’s minutes had to be managed after he had suffered both injury and a lack of game time with the Clarets before heading out on loan.

Millwall were not helped by Tom Bradshaw and Kevin Nisbet both being sidelined with injuries, although the former could now be back before the end of the campaign, as it limited the rotation options at the sharp end of the pitch.

But Obafemi stayed the distance in the 2-0 loss at Leeds United last weekend.

Ireland play friendlies against Belgium today and then Switzerland on Tuesday.

Asked about the fact Obafemi looks to be getting stronger and sharper with each match, Harris told the South London Press: “He does – and I was really pleased, he sort of grew into the game.

“We played some quicker balls forward which he almost got on the end of at the end of the first half. It gave him a real belief when he opened up with his pace.

“The second half we played into him a little bit more and looked after the ball a bit better – we found him in some really good areas around the box. He looked like a really exciting centre-forward that was at about 90 per cent last weekend. There is still another five to 10 per cent to come from Michael.

“A fit Michael Obafemi scores a couple of goals against Leeds. That is where we’ve had to build him up and be really appreciative – the hope was that we’d have at least two centre-forwards fit that would share the workload, to help him get his workload up, but we haven’t been in that position.

“We have built up him patiently to playing 97 minutes the other day so that when he comes back from international duty with the Republic of Ireland he is fit to go and feels in an even better place – not only has he got the minutes in his legs but the sharpness as well.”