Millwall urged to approach player departure with care in 2026 | OneFootball

Another injury to Millwall right-back Ryan Leonard has left FLW's Lions fan pundit asking his club to strengthen in that position in January.

This article is part of Football League World's 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more...

Millwall will be heading into the new year with one eye on improving on last season and bagging themselves at least a Championship play-off spot.

But one position that has attracted a lot of attention within their first-team this season has been the right-back spot. Ryan Leonard has been helping to fill that spot since 2018, but he's now 34-years-old and a calf injury will be keeping him out of the Millwall team until at least the end of December.

Since the right-back position isn't one that the club chose to strengthen during the summer, the January window will be their last chance to do so for this season, should they decide that they need to. The injury to Leonard may serve as a reminder for them to do so.

Millwall urged to strengthen at right-back

Football League World have spoken to our resident Millwall fan pundit Lucas Ball about Leonard and the broader question of what the Lions should do at this position, and Lucas believes that time is running out for Leonard in the first-team at The Den: "I think this is his last season as even a semi-regular. I think his contract is up at the end of the season, I'm pretty sure it was extended based on an option last year, but that's to be confirmed."

Lucas believes that the decision not to strengthen in this position was a misstep on the part of the club this summer: "He's been a great servant for us over the years, obviously, but I think the decision not to sign a right-back, certainly a more modern right-back, in the summer is something I've spoken about a lot and it's something that I think the club got wrong."

He feels that Leonard's advancing years limit him in terms of what he can offer Millwall in the right-back position: "Leonard has performed well in some games, but he's very limited going forward these days, and that's no fault his own. That is his game now. He's relatively strong defensively but occasionally can be got at, and then doesn't offer us enough going forward on the counter in those games that he is perhaps more suited to against potentially stronger opposition in the league when we need to be stronger defensively."

But he is also aware of the importance of having experienced players in the Millwall squad: "I think there's a degree of caution in terms of moving on too many experienced heads in one hit, and I think we do need to be careful with that, the dangers of this transfer strategy that we've employed which I've spoken about on numerous occasions. He's also our vice-captain, so there's also that."

This influence in the dressing room is something that Lucas considers to be important, especially with the possibility of another couple of Millwall players moving on: "If we weren't to go up, I'd probably be happy with him as a squad player for another year, playing very occasionally. Hopefully, we'll sign another right-back. I'm hoping that we'll do that in January, but we'll have to wait and see. Wes Harding is likely to move on, and I'm not sure whether Danny McNamara has a longer-term future at the club either."

And ultimately, while Lucas doesn't believe that Ryan Leonard can continue at right-back at a Championship level, he's grateful to Leonard for what he has given his team: "I don't think he's got too long left at this level, realistically, as a regularly playing member of the squad, but in terms of helping to fill our leadership void and things that come with that, I think he still possibly has a part to play for a little bit longer, but I'm not sure that's the only reason we should be keeping hold of a player. It's a tough one to judge, but we'll see how he goes when he's back from his injury. That could affect things as well, if he doesn't recover from this lay-off, so we'll have to play it by ear, but he's been a very good servant for the club."

Millwall are an ambitious club, and the role of the full-back has changed in recent years

Ryan Leonard suffered a calf injury at the start of November, with manager Alex Neil confirming that the player would likely be out for a couple of months. It's the second serious injury that the defender has suffered this year, having also missed two months between January and March with another calf injury.

Few positions have changed more than that of the full-back in recent years. Right and left-backs are now often expected to provide more support to attacking players than they used to be, and this could be an issue for a defender of the old school who's now 34 years of age and has had two substantial injuries in the last twelve months.

There's no doubt that Leonard has been a fantastic servant to Millwall. He's run up over 200 appearances for the club since first signing for them from Sheffield United in 2018. He won the Millwall Supporters' Club 2023/24 Player of the Season award, and having the experience of having a player around the club whose been there for that long will be extremely important to the manager.

But Millwall are a club with ambition. They've knocked on the door of a Championship play-off place and are looking to go that one step further this time around. As such, they probably can't afford to have a player who's at risk of injury and who isn't someone who naturally fits into the more modern interpretation of a full-back's role. What decision Ryan Leonard and Millwall make next once his contract comes to an end remains to be seen, but it would certainly seem that his role as a regular first-team starter in that position will be coming to an end.