Millwall could have EIGHT players missing for Coventry City clash at The Den

Millwall could be without up to EIGHT first-teamers for tomorrow’s home game against Coventry City.

On-loan Arsenal centre-back Daniel Ballard was forced off with an eye injury in Wednesday’s stalemate at Swansea City.

And Rowett revealed to the South London Press that Scott Malone and Mason Bennett also reported knocks after the 0-0 draw in South Wales.

The Lions are set to be without Sheyi Ojo, ruled out in midweek due to illness, along with Benik Afobe, Shaun Hutchinson, Danny McNamara and George Evans.

“I probably haven’t been able to pick my strongest side before the last 12-13 games of last season,” said Rowett. “Maybe a little bit more than that. Hutchy was out at the back end of last season and the start of this season.

“It just feels like every time we get a little bit of a settled team, like last weekend, then Shey gets ruled out the day before the [Swansea] game.

“Even Mason [Bennett] probably wasn’t fit but we had to start him, just to get a little bit of pace in the team.

“Dan’s cut was underneath his eyebrow. It was quite a bad cut and the eye swelled up.

“He’s had to go to hospital to see an eye specialist. I don’t think they’ll be able to routinely stitch it up, because of where it was.

“George [Evans] has a groin injury and the scan said seven to 10 days, he’s probably going to miss the weekend. There’s a small chance he might be fit for the Leicester game.

“Hutch trained earlier this week, but only a couple of days. Danny is set to train on Monday, so he’ll miss Leicester. Hutch has a very small chance he might be available for the weekend, more than likely it will be Leicester.

“It is a challenge but it is football. It’s something we’ve got to navigate.

“I’ve spoken many times before that we’ve got a good squad when everybody is fit. We can’t keep picking up injuries and expect to be at our best and win games in the Championship if you haven’t got different options, both starting and off the bench.”

The Millwall team coach only arrived back in the capital in the early hours of Thursday morning.

Next up are in-form Coventry in SE16.

“We’ve got to recover as best as we can and we’ve got to make sure we have got energy from the start of the game,” said Rowett. “The challenge is knowing what team is available.

“Scott Malone and Mase picked up knocks, as well as Daniel Ballard. We’ve got to wait and be a little bit patient in terms of what we do with the team.”

Rowett was left to rue decision-making in the final third in back-to-back away fixtures.

“If you look at West Brom we limited them to few chances, came strong as the game went on and had the better chances,” said the Lions chief. “In the last 20-25 minutes we looked much stronger physically than them. We broke so many times into good areas – you need to find the spare man on the transition.

“You’re just hoping the players pick the right pass, the right time and the right bit of quality that good teams do. We just couldn’t quite find the right ball and right time.

“Smudge has the chance to play Jed in. It’s quite an obvious pass and he couldn’t quite make it. We’re pleased with some elements of the performance but we need to go and find that last little bit to go and win these games.

“We had the opportunity to win both of the last two.”