Millwall captain not close to first-team return but Burnley loanee set to be available to play at Southampton

Shaun Hutchinson is still “a few weeks away” from being back available for Millwall’s relegation battle.

The former Fulham and Motherwell centre-back has been a big miss for the Lions.

Hutchinson has been out since he scored the only goal in a 1-0 win at Bristol City on New Year’s Day, the last victory that the struggling South Londoners collected.

“Hutch is still a few weeks away,” Millwall head coach Joe Edwards told the South London Press. “I think he is aiming to rejoin training properly in the next couple of weeks and see how that goes.

“Then it is a case, when we get him back out on the training pitch, of building him back up. We have to be quite conservative in how we build him back up, given what has happened to him.

“Having players out for long periods of time is part of the game that every manager and club has to deal with – it’s why you have a squad. You have to call on other people in the squad to step up and fill holes and perform.

“But Hutch is club captain and very experienced – he knows what it takes to play for Millwall. And even in this recent period, which has been difficult for us as a group, Hutchy has shared his experience with a lot of the younger and newer players – that this club has been in tougher times before, that you kind of have to step up and face it.

“He’s trying to share that experience as much as he can but when he has got that experience – he’s been there, got through tough moments and led the backline in Millwall teams of the past – it’s certainly something we’ve been missing.

“My most successful period here as the coach was that Christmas period where Hutch played well against Norwich and then again against Bristol City. He was a big part of what that backline was doing – he is a big miss, for sure.”

Burnley loan striker Michael Obafemi missed the last two games due to illness.

“Obafemi has been back in this week – he’ll have this week under his belt,” said Edwards. “Albeit he got outdoors yesterday and did a session it was not with the team. It was a physical football session, just to get the cobwebs off.

“He’s got this week leading into the Southampton game, so he’s back available.”