Millwall manager Gary Rowett has stated that Ryan Leonard is going to suffer for longer on the sidelines than he had first thought.

Leonard was expected to be back about Christmas time, but it seems as though he's going to be out longer than Rowett had first imagined.

Shaun Hutchinson is also out of the side due to injury at the moment as he picked up a rib problem that meant he had to miss Saturday's 1-1 draw with Birmingham.

The Lions have started excellently under new boss Rowett and will be hoping that they can continue their good form and compete with the sides in the top half of the table.

Rowett will be hoping that his side doesn't suffer any more injury problems in the near future, especially with large amount of games coming up before Christmas.

Speaking to News at Den, Rowett said: “I was really pleased because we had some difficult things to navigate during the week. We’d lots of players injured, Shaun Hutchinson being unavailable, Shane Ferguson being unavailable, Ryan Leonard looking like he’s not going to come back as quickly as we thought."

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The Verdict

Millwall have had an excellent start to life under Rowett and will be hoping that they continue to do so and keep pushing the league.

He's only lost one game since he's been in charge, and he's coming up with ways of giving them a chance of winning fixtures away from the Den which is a massive positive seeing as their home form is so good.

These injuries haven't halted them yet, but any more could do so. He'll want to hope everyone can recover and come back even better in the future.