Gary Rowett has revealed that Millwall midfielder Ben Thompson could be ruled out for the remainder of the campaign if his quad injury is worse than first feared.

The 24-year-old hasn't featured for the Lions since the 1-0 victory over Derby County in mid-December after suffering ankle ligament damage at Pride Park.

However, Thompson had recovered from the ankle problem and recently returned to training at Calmont Road, but suffered a quad injury during a sprint exercise and although Rowett is hopeful that the Millwall midfielder will be back in a couple of weeks, the worse case scenario could see his season cut short.

"He was doing sprint work and felt his quad tighten up," Rowett told South London Press. "Thommo being Thommo he was desperate to get back and was giving everything.

“He was running a bit faster than he was meant to at this moment. The prognosis is that he has got some damage in there. Until it settles down we don’t know how much.

“We’re hoping it’s just a couple of weeks. That’s the best case scenario. The worst case we might be looking at him struggling to be back for this season."

“It’s one of those where it would be brilliant to have Thommo back, we think he could add something different in the last period of games. But realistically – like Lenny [Ryan Leonard] as well – because they’ve had injury problems this season the focus is firstly on them being okay for next season and anything else is a bonus.”

The Verdict

This setback sums another what has been a frustrating 12 months for Thompson.

Having returned from his loan spell at Portsmouth last January, the midfielder was in excellent form as Millwall narrowly avoided relegation, but saw his season ended prematurely after injuring his hamstring against Brentford on Good Friday.

Thompson was once more impressive at the beginning of this season, scoring once in 22 Championship games, but the win at Pride Park almost three months ago looks like being his final appearance of what has been a stop-start campaign.