GARY Rowett has revealed that Callum Styles is set to miss the next three months of action after injuring his quad.
The versatile midfielder, on loan from League One outfit Barnsley, will be ruled out until the final weeks of what has already been an injury-hit campaign.
Styles has suffered numerous small knocks since joining Millwall on deadline day in August, but this is the first significant injury that he has suffered during his spell at The Den.
He has featured in 18 Championship matches for the Lions this season, scoring once in their 2-1 win against West Brom in October.
Rowett confirmed that the injury seemingly came from nothing and that Styles was expected to only miss one game “at worst”, but he was relieved that the club managed to detect it early on and prevent any further damage from happening to the Hungarian international.
“Stylesy felt his quad a little bit,” he explained.
“He got through training, got through the game against Cardiff, got through training the next time we trained and just felt something at the end of it.
“He mentioned it to the physio, he had a look and said it didn’t look too bad. We got him scanned as a precaution and, lo and behold, it’s quite a serious injury.
“We’re thankful in some ways that we scanned it, but of course at that point it was a bit of a shock to all of us because we felt he might miss at worst a game. Now it looks like he’s probably going to miss the best part of 12 weeks.
“It doesn’t quite rule him out for the season but at this stage that’s what it feels like. We’ll get behind Stylesy, he’s obviously disappointed. I thought he was coming into some good form, showed his versatility and how good a footballer he is. We’ll have to wait a little bit longer until we see it again.”
While Styles’ injury record has been particularly frustrating this season, Rowett sees the scenario as a squad-wide issue that has damaged Millwall’s momentum in a crucial season where they continue to push for a top-six finish.
“Every time we seem to get on a little roll, or a little run with a bit of continuity, or our squad starts to look strong, we pick up two or three really innocuous and serious injuries.
“It’s really frustrating because there have been very, very few opportunities this season to pick the same team. As a manager, that’s what I’ve done quite a lot.
“I think there’s quite a lot of statistics in this division that show that the best teams usually use the fewest players. There’s usually not that much disrespect in it, so therefore keeping people fit is very, very important.
“Stylesy has had quite a sporadic season with two or three different little injuries in the middle of good form. I think it’s been hugely frustrating for him and for us.”
Photo: Millwall FC