Millwall hit with injury issues as 19-year-old academy graduate goalkeeper handed Championship debut at Blackburn

Alex Neil admitted the absence of Lukas Jensen was ‘less than ideal’ after the Millwall goalkeeper missed out on the 4-1 loss away to Blackburn through injury.

Nineteen-year-old academy graduate George Evans was handed a senior debut with Jensen and Liam Roberts, who has provided back-up to the Dane this season, both sidelined.

Neil revealed that Joe Bryan also pulled out on the eve of the match, forcing him to play Ryan Leonard at left-back with Wes Harding deputising on the right.

“Lukas got injured and couldn’t make the match,” Neil told Millwall TV. “It really is as simple as that.

“Liam is already injured, so young George had to deputise.

“It’s not a good game to come into and we lost Joe Bryan late yesterday as well.

“We were hoping he would be okay but he hadn’t trained right up until the game.

“Casper [De Norre] hadn’t trained right up until the game.

“When you’re changing your goalkeeper, your right-back and your left-back it’s not particularly helpful. But we’re not in the habit of excuses. We wanted to win the game, we wanted to attack the game and that’s how we set up.

“You can look at it and say it had a bearing on the match, but ultimately we still tried to win.”