Rotherham United 'concern' raised for Matt Hamshaw - it's 'absolutely ridiculous' | OneFootball

Rotherham United have an issue and a concern with their injury crisis, both on and off the pitch.

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...

It has been a mixed start to the campaign for Rotherham United, with the Millers having managed just two victories, a draw and three defeats in their opening seven matches of the campaign.

Over the September international break, they managed to defeat Exeter City by a goal to nil at the New York Stadium with Matt Hamshaw, the former assistant to Paul Warne, trying to get a new squad of players to gel together as quickly as possible.

Rotherham, relegated from the Championship in the 2023/24 campaign, underperformed under the management of Steve Evans last season, and they will be looking for at least a top-half finish this time around.

It has been a relatively underwhelming start, but a fair bit of that could be put down to the injury issues that have occurred already, and a fresh one with defender Tom Holmes now set for a spell on the sidelines after picking up an injury in what was an impressive debut against Exeter.

The amount of injuries occurring at the New York Stadium is something that is now a growing concern for Rotherham supporters as they try and push back up the League One table.

Injuries are a concern for Rotherham United right now

In what is an open division, though, it wouldn’t even be a major shock to see the South Yorkshire outfit dragged towards the bottom four and the relegation places in League One.

There are perhaps some issues for Rotherham boss Hamshaw and the club to attend to at the moment, and the most pressing concern for FLW's Millers Fan Pundit Tom Eyre is the injury crisis.

Tom says: “I think my main concern for myself and many other fans of the club is the amount of key injuries that we are getting.

“Currently, we have at least five first-team players out and in the past month to two months, we have had about 12 players injured.

“It is something that cannot be sustained for the rest of the season, because it is absolutely ridiculous having that many players injured at one time, and the quantity of players is really concerning.

“Both on the pitch because we aren’t performing as well, and off it because who knows why it is happening, and it is something the club needs to get sorted as soon as possible.”

Tom Holmes is a fresh and major blow for Rotherham

After last summer saw Rotherham bring in a lot of new signings under Evans that have since departed, most notably Mallik Wilks and Jonson Clarke-Harris; Rotherham embarked upon another reasonably busy recruitment drive.

That recruitment drive also saw them take the unusual step of scouting abroad, and they brought in the likes of Denzel Hall and Ar’Jany Martha from Beerschot and Heerenveen respectively. They were among a 12-signing summer transfer window that featured the bulk of their business being done from the final week of pre-season onwards.

Naturally, a bit of bedding in time is to be expected and so the squad at Hamshaw’s disposal should be good enough to eventually flirt with a tilt at the top six and the play-off places.

It is therefore a fairly unhelpful situation for Rotherham to find themselves in that they have an abundance of injury issues, causing further disruption to a squad that needs time to work together.

The defence has been hit the hardest so far this season, and things have worsened after inuuries to centre-backs Lenny Agbaire and Sean Raggett, with new signing Tom Holmes having sustained a rare LCL injury during his debut in that 1-0 victory against Exeter.

Holmes' injury has to be seen as a major blow for Hamshaw and Rotherham supporters with the Luton Town loanee having played very well in that victory in which Rotherham kept a crucial but rare clean sheet.

As well as that trio, Rotherham are still without attacking duo Martin Sherif and Sam Nombe, whilst Kion Etete limped off in the defeat of the Grecians, and is a doubt moving forwad for the Millers.

However, a phrase often uttered by coaches and staff is that the best ability is availability, and Rotherham will need to sort out their fitness issues if they are to become upwardly mobile once again.

Rotherham are now drastically short on numbers both in attack and at the back, and it is causing a major headache for Matt Hamshaw, who may need to get creative with the system he names in order to accomodate for the build-up of absentees in specific positions.