MILLWALL boss Gary Rowett has explained what the plans are for his players during the international break.
Callum Styles, George Saville and Charlie Cresswell will all be away on international duty, but the Lions will have everyone else available for training over the next two weeks.
Despite that, Rowett confirmed to NewsAtDen that his players will have some time off before returning to training this week, with preparations for their match against Blackburn Rovers starting next week.
“The plan as usual for most teams, and we’re no different, is in a busy Championship season that you always try to do the same. We’ll give the players a little bit of downtime, both physically and mentally, for the first few days.
“Then we’ll be back in for a good few days training. Obviously we won’t have the whole squad because we’ve got three players not there, but we’ll work on some aspects of our game that we think we need to improve on. Then we’ll come in next week in earnest to start the buildup to Blackburn.
“What it does it that it gives you a little bit of a chance to reflect on the games that you’ve had and to prepare a little better for the next game because you’ve got quite a long time before it. It is slightly different, but I think most teams do the same.
“Some clubs will give their team a week off but we’ve never done that, we just feel it’s too long and too much time, certainly we don’t need to do that. It’ll be a busy week but the players will get a chance to have a bit of downtime.”
It does give Rowett the chance to watch some of the televised games that his players as involved in, stressing that “we’ll try to keep in touch with what the lads are doing with a keen eye to watch their games if we can”.
Perhaps the pick of the bunch would be Styles, who’s set to start for the Hungarian national team in their crucial Nations League matches against Germany and Italy. With the right results, they could end up progressing through to the semi-finals of the competitions, which would be one of the biggest accomplishments in the country’s history.
“They’ve done fantastically to get some of the results that they have in the last few matches,” Rowett added.
“It’ll be interesting to see Callum’s progress with them. I think he’s done really well. It’s new to him, international football, but it’s a great opportunity for him also.”
Photo: Millwall FC