Rotherham United co-caretaker boss Richard Wood has admitted he has aspirations of being a manager one day but is only focused on today's clash against Wigan Athletic at this stage, speaking to the Yorkshire Post.

Wood and fellow defender Lee Peltier have been placed in charge of the Millers and have been given the green light by the club's board to take charge of their upcoming tie against the Latics, with the club failing to appoint Paul Warne's successor at this point.

Cambridge United manager Mark Bonner was previously believed to be the preferred candidate to take over at the New York Stadium after seeing him thrive at the Abbey Stadium, even managing to guide his side to seventh place in League One going in today's round of fixtures.

However, Bonner opted to stay with the U's and that reportedly came as a shock to the Championship side, who are now on the prowl for an alternative manager.

Exeter City's Matt Taylor and Sutton United's Matt Gray have both been linked with the vacancy - but an appointment isn't reported to be close at this stage and it will be too late for either to take charge of today's game against Leam Richardson's men.

Wood and/or co-caretaker Peltier could be in the frame for the permanent role if they thrive in their current role, though the former is fully focused on today's assignment as opposed to the long term.

Speaking ahead of today's game, he said: "I do have aspirations to do it (be a manager) one day.

"It's something I am looking at anyway and doing my coaching badges. But I am just focused on Wigan."

The Verdict:

Wood is a player that will certainly have a lot of respect in the dressing room - but how qualified he is will probably determine whether he will have any chance of being the new permanent manager or not.

If he isn't working towards his UEFA Pro License, it would be difficult to see him getting the job because the Millers will want to make sure they hire someone who has a real chance of taking them forward in the long term.

They won't want to continuously hire and fire after benefitting so much from the stability they had under Paul Warne, with the club currently sitting in the top half of the second-tier table.

Considering some of the players they lost in the summer and the limited budget they have, that's a remarkable achievement and a big reason behind this success is the stability they have off the pitch.

With this, they may be looking at a reasonably young coach and that will give Wood a better opportunity to take the job permanently, but it would be difficult to see him and/or Peltier getting the gig for the long term unless they do remarkably well.