Alex Neil 'very hopeful' of Millwall injury boost as 4 absences explained after West Brom draw

Millwall boss Alex Neil has explained some of the absences from his squad that drew with West Brom on Saturday. The Lions took the lead through Jake Cooper but conceded an own goal seven minutes lates when Joe Bryan turned into his own net, and that was it for the scoring.

The result leaves Millwall in 14th place as they turn their attention to a mid-week clash with Preston North End. Though, Lions boss Neil is still without some attacking players, with Macaulay Langstaff one of those who remains out.

Explaining the striker’s absence from his squad on Saturday, Neil told South London News: “Macaulay is not available at the moment,” said Neil. “He didn’t get left out – he’s still injured.”

Josh Coburn is another who remains out, but there is some hope he can return on Tuesday, with Neil adding: “He wasn’t quite ready for today. I’m very hopeful he might be ready for Preston. If not Preston then it will definitely be the next one, provided things go as they have done.”

Elsewhere, some fans have been asking about the absences of loan signing Zak Sturge, who joined on a temporary deal from Chelsea, and Benicio Baker-Boaitey , who joined on a permanent move. Neil reasoned: “The difficulty I have got with Zak is that he has played limited football. Benny has played limited football. These boys fall into a little bit of a different bracket at the moment – we need to build them up so they are ready.

“People say: ‘Why don’t you play him?’ Okay, who am I taking out? And then that is when the question sort of starts to change because it’s ‘oh, I don’t need to take anybody out but I’d still play him’. Okay, I can’t play 35 players.”

Sturge has made 18 league appearances for Peterborough United on a loan spell but is yet to play Championship football, while Baker-Boaitey does have five Premier League appearances for Brighton under his belt.

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