The 9 players who will miss Hull City v Millwall play-off semi-final | OneFootball

These players are set to be absent for the play-off semi-final first leg between Millwall and Hull City

The EFL play-offs kick off on Friday night, as two of the surprise packages of the season, Hull City and Millwall, battle for a place at Wembley.

Both teams have thoroughly exceeded expectations this season, with Millwall pushing the automatic promotion race all the way to the final day, and Hull being in the top six for the majority of the season, too, despite being tipped to struggle pre-season.

It's been nine years since Hull were in the Premier League, last going up via the play-offs in the 2015/16 campaign. As for Millwall, this is their first time in the second-tier play-offs since 2001/02, and the Lions haven't been in the top flight since the 1989/90 campaign.

So, it's a massive opportunity for two sides who haven't tasted top-flight glory for quite a while to move within one step of the Premier League, and both will be eager to gain the advantage ahead of Monday's second leg.

Unfortunately, these nine players won't be fit and available to do so.

Eliot Matazo

Eliot Matazo suffered a truly devastating ACL injury inside the opening 10 minutes of Hull's penultimate game of the campaign at Charlton Athletic.

It was his first outing back for the Tigers since February 2025, having picked up the same injury in his other knee then.

Hull will be hoping that it won't be another 14 months before they can see the Belgian back on the field, but they won't be seeing him for a good number of months once again.

David Akintola

In the wake of Matazo's injury, Sergej Jakirovic was questioned in his pre-match press conference whether David Akintola could be re-registered into the EFL squad ahead of the play-offs, just to give some extra depth in the midfield and wide areas.

Unfortunately, the Bosnian boss replied: "I think it's not possible."

Toby Collyer

It's been a truly difficult campaign for Manchester United loanee Toby Collyer. The 22-year-old struggled to get game time at West Brom in the first half of the season due to selection issues and injury problems, and the latter has haunted him since he was relocated to Hull.

Collyer has started just one game for the Tigers, back on Easter Monday in a 0-0 draw against Coventry City, but hasn't featured since, after picking up an ankle injury in training shortly after.

While the injury report stated he could be in line for a return for the play-offs, it wasn't clearly outlined by Sergej Jakirovic whether he's back in training or not.

Amir Hadziahmetovic

Besiktas loanee Amir Hadziahmetovic won't be featuring again for Hull this season after he picked up a knee injury in the 1-1 draw with Birmingham City at the MKM Stadium last month.

Jakirovic explained that the 29-year-old Bosnian international does need surgery for the injury, but will be trying to fix the knee ahead of this summer's World Cup. Despite that, he outlined that "the domestic season is over" for him.

Cody Drameh

And rounding out the Hull injury news, right-back Cody Drameh is set to miss the rest of the season, too, after picking up yet another quad injury in their 2-1 defeat against Sheffield United last month.

The 24-year-old has been in and out of the side all season, but had started four consecutive league games for the first time since the opening four outings of the season prior to the injury.

It will see him out for six weeks, which isn't too concerning, but the timescale will rule him out of any play-off action.

Caleb Taylor

The good news out of the Millwall camp is that line-leader Josh Coburn is back in training and will be assessed on Thursday ahead of the trip to the MKM Stadium on Friday night.

Unfortunately, no such update has been given on Caleb Taylor, who missed the final two games of the season with a foot injury.

The former West Brom centre-back has had an injury-disrupted back-end to the season, and it may likely bleed into the opening stages of the play-offs, too.

Lukas Jensen

Millwall's number one, Lukas Jensen, has been missing from first-team action since tearing his Achilles last April.

Despite Max Crocombe performing well in the interim, he'd likely have seen himself back in the side in 2026, but a quad injury picked up in December while he was getting his fitness back with the Under-21's has seen him out for the foreseeable future.

Millwall signed Anthony Patterson on loan from Sunderland back in January for the rest of the season, and he's performed admirably in between the sticks since.

Massimo Luongo

Former Ipswich Town midfielder Massimo Luongo had his season curtailed back in October after rupturing his ACL during a win over QPR.

Given the role that the 33-year-old Aussie played in helping Ipswich into the Premier League a couple of years ago, Millwall would have loved someone with his experience on the field for big games such as these, but he'll be forced to look on from the stands.

Dan Kelly

Dan Kelly threatened a breakout year in the heart of the Millwall midfield earlier this season, as the 20-year-old made his first three league starts for the club in late 2025, deputising for other absences in the position.

However, the former Celtic starlet was sidelined in December with a hamstring injury, which has kept him out for the rest of the season.