Millwall injury update on Lee Gregory and Shaun Hutchinson – as Harris demands away wins from his players
BY RICHARD CAWLEY
Millwall manager Neil Harris had no early update on the severity of Lee Gregory’s injury – as the striker came off in the closing stages of tonight’s 2-0 home loss to Birmingham City.
The Lions were already missing Tom Elliott (hamstring) and Tom Bradshaw (knee).
And now Gregory could be a doubt for Sunday’s Championship match at Bristol City.
Asked what the issue was with the club’s top-scorer, Harris replied: “Not sure. He’s got a sort of stomach, groin area, tightening up. At this moment I’m not entirely sure. We’ll have to assess him tomorrow.”
Shaun Hutchinson also came off with a nasty cut above his right eye which covered that side of his face in blood.
“No concussion, just a cut,” said Harris. “Normally you take them off and stitch them up and it takes two minutes – but we didn’t have two minutes with 10 men. If it had been 11 v 11 then we’d have left him to get stitched back up and go back on. But we couldn’t go nine v 11.”
Not only do Millwall have injury doubts for the fixture at Ashton Gate but Ryan Leonard is suspended after his first half dismissal against the Blues.
Harris said: “What is in my control is a better first half hour than we’ve shown out there. That comes under my remit, for sure. Injury-wise, red cards, referees not giving us fouls that can have a knock-on effect to a second booking…they are out of my control.
“The first goal probably sums us up really where Hutch has a slip, then a stumble to get back in. We don’t quite recover our positions correctly in the right areas – it sums up where we are at the moment. The only way you get through them is by working hard and making sure as an individual you are doing your job and collectively 11 individuals doing their job wins you games of football.
“We’ll have to think about shuffling the pack. It might be a chance for young players to come into the squad.
“What I’ve just told the players is we put ourselves under pressure by not picking up points on the road, and that’s what put us under pressure tonight. Because you can’t just rely on winning your home games all the time – you have to pick up points on the road. I’ve just told the players that starts Sunday. I expect my Millwall team now to go and win games away from home.”