Millwall likely to have two key players back available for Blackburn Rovers match

Millwall manager Gary Rowett is expecting Mason Bennett and Shaun Hutchinson to be back available for selection for Saturday’s Championship match at Blackburn Rovers.

Former Derby attacker Bennett has been missing since early August with a hamstring injury sustained in the 3-2 win over Coventry City.

Club captain Hutchinson suffered a groin injury which forced him off in the September 3 victory at The Den against Cardiff City.

“They both trained on Monday to various degrees,” said Rowett. “Hutchy did the majority of the session. Benno did most of the session but not all of it. On Tuesday they both completed the whole session. It’s only a couple of days in so it’s difficult to be specific. But if they get through the week’s training with no after-effects then, in theory, they’d both be available.

“Whether they are both involved or we go down that route straight away? I don’t know. Until the end of the week I can’t make that call.

“I think they’ll both be available but they have missed a little chunk of football.”

Bennett, 26, has missed the last seven Championship matches.

“Mase is one of those players who can beat people but yet still fits into our profile of what we’re looking for,” said Rowett. “He presses well, picks up good positions and understands what we want to do. He has that ability to play as a striker, a 10, he’s quick, he’s strong – he’s quite an all-round player.

“We’ve missed his ability to beat people in tight areas and open the game up, whether that is from the start or off the bench.

“He has been a big miss. Sometimes if you’re going to lose a player you want it to be a like-for-like player that you’ve got already. What you don’t want it to be is one of those game-changers in the building, because that has a huge effect.”

Ryan Leonard was initially expected to miss two or three months with a hamstring tear.

“He feels like he is making good progress,” said Rowett. “I believe he’s getting re-scanned this week. It’s a case of if his scan is completely clear we might be able to accelerate him forward a little bit. If his scan is not clear then that will give us a bit of an indication on how long is left.

“It’s always quite difficult when you’ve been out for a while and his hamstring was quite a bad hamstring injury, even though ironically he hardly felt anything. We’re hoping maybe the scan looked worse when he first had it scanned, rather than the scan now. We’ll find out but he’ll be a little bit longer.”