Injury to key man has Rotherham United praying for good news

The Republic Of Ireland international was in London on Monday for a scan on the problem he suffered in training last week.

Boss Matt Taylor was waiting for news on Monday afternoon to find out the extent of it, but it looks unlikely the forward will be involved at Stoke on Tuesday night.

“He is in London today, I have just come off the training pitch, I hope I will have news in the next hour or so,” Taylor said.

“If he is in London today, he will do well to meet us in Stoke tomorrow and be fit for that game.

“We hope there is nothing untoward in terms of the process he is going through.

“We will assess him on a daily basis. If it is tomorrow night it is tomorrow night, if not then we will look towards the weekend.

“Touch wood it doesn't seem too serious in terms of a tear of that hamstring, we just need to get to the bottom of the complaint.”

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Taylor admits it would be a risk to take him to Stoke even if the news is good.

“He has not trained since Thursday and he has spent all day in a car so as much as we might get good news we have not had chance to test it,” he said.

“It would be a big risk, but we are short of numbers, but it is something we are assessing.

“I'm waiting for news to see if it is positive, to see if maybe we can open him up in the morning and test him.

“We all know what Chieo's game is about, it is about physical attributes, how fast he moves, so to put him out there will be a risk.

“But we will assess it, but it probably won't be my decision, luckily I have to trust the medical experts on this one.”

Taylor did reveal that Arsenal loanee Brooke Norton-Cuffy is expected to be fit, despite still feeling pain from a hamstring injury.

“He seems OK today, he still has a complaint, he is aware of something,” the boss added.

“We have to put people where they are exposed to football, otherwise it goes too long where they have not had gametime or training time and they are not in a physical position to start a game of football or come on.

“As long as he doesn't display any symptoms in the next 24 hours we hope to have him available on Tuesday and going forward.”

Peter Kioso (ankle) and Jamie Lindsay (facial injury) miss out but Scott High returns to the fray after being ineligible at the weekend.