Milwall set to lose 'vital' talisman for Sheffield Wednesday and Luton Town clashes amid injury crisis

Millwall are facing somewhat of a crisis when it comes to attacking options after Tom Bradshaw picked up a serious injury in the side's Carabao Cup defeat to Leyton Orient on Tuesday night.

The Lions suffered a humiliating 1-0 defeat at The Den in a whimpering performance and had woes worsened after full time as head coach Neil Harris confirmed that Bradshaw would face a lengthy spell on the sidelines. The 32-year-old came on in the 64th minute to replace Joe Bryan was did not finish the match as he picked up a hamstring issue in injury time.

Speaking after the game, Harris said: “It’s his hamstring. It is going to be a bad one. He will have to be scanned but you don’t come off like he did and get an overnight fix.

“I don’t want to put a timescale on it but we are not going to see him for a period of time. It was just a nudge in the back and he deaccelerated quickly to stop and just felt his hamstring go.”

Those words from Harris point to a lengthy lay off which could see Bradshaw out for a number of Championship games. Millwall face Sheffield Wednesday this weekend at The Den before hosting Luton Town after the international break.

Harris didn't appear hopeful that Bradshaw would be featuring in the side's next fixtures but supporters will hope for a speedy recovery with the team already facing a lack of forward options. New signing Macaulay Langstaff is the only striking option available for the weekend's meeting with the Owls following Kevin Nisbet's loan to Aberdeen last weekend.

Bradshaw had been linked with an exit from Millwall himself this summer but Harris previously squashed those rumours. He said: "Tom’s going to be here. There’s been a lot of press around Tom but no substance whatsoever. So I’ll just make that very clear to you guys that all press elements seem to want to write something about Tom Bradshaw but there’s absolutely no substance whatsoever to it.

“Bradders has a huge part to play at this football club. He’s a senior statesman of the centre forward line at present and he’s got a huge role to play with us. He’s a great personality, good leadership skills. He’s infectious, he’s got energy still even as he’s getting older. So he’s not quite as quick as he used to be but he’s got great energy and desire and on the training pitch he has great knowledge of how to be a Millwall number nine. And that’s vital for us. From the start of games he’ll be vital for us [and] off the bench."