Paul Warne to miss Rotherham United match against Watford

Rotherham boss Paul Warne will miss his side's match with Watford on Tuesday because he is in self-isolation.
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The Millers return to action following a coronavirus outbreak in the camp which has seen the training ground shut for the last 10 days.

Three games have been postponed in that time and they are thrown back in the deep end with the visit of promotion-chasing Watford

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Warne will not be there after he went into self-isolation on Friday, meaning Richie Barker will take the team.

Rotherham boss Paul Warne will be absent from his side's Sky Bet Championship games against Watford and Bristol City after entering a period of self-isolation.Rotherham boss Paul Warne will be absent from his side's Sky Bet Championship games against Watford and Bristol City after entering a period of self-isolation.
Rotherham boss Paul Warne will be absent from his side's Sky Bet Championship games against Watford and Bristol City after entering a period of self-isolation.

But what that team will look like remains a mystery as the club's training ground only reopened on Monday.

A sizeable number of the squad have been hit by the virus last time – five contracted the disease in a previous outbreak in December – and Warne does not know the full health of his squad.

He said: “We have been hit really, really hard this time. It has gone through the camp and we've had a significant number of people self-isolating, including myself now.

"The lads’ first day back will be Monday.

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"They won't have myself, Richie (Barker) or Hammy (Matt Hamshaw) there, but fortunately we've got Andy Warrington to oversee training.

"Richie will be able to take a session with the lads on Tuesday morning to take them through some work to prepare them as well as we can technically.

"I've been texting the players virtually daily to see how they are because some players have been hit really hard.

"Before we can nail down a starting XI, we need to find out how they are really.”

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The Millers have come under fire for the second outbreak of the season, which will see them now play 14 games in a seven-week period.

Aitor Karanka, who has now been let go by Birmingham City, said the Millers could get an advantage from playing games at the back end of the season.

But Warne says it has all been above board.

"There's nothing sinister going on here. We haven't thought, 'It would be great to have 10 days off as a mini-break' - it is an absolute disaster,” he added.

"If we played on a Saturday and I said to the lads, 'I won't see you until Thursday', if they were healthy I would never do that.

"They need to come in, they need to keep topping their skills up and they need to keep themselves in a physical shape.

"They need to be footballers on a daily basis, so to suddenly not be able to use the training ground for 10 days is a disaster.

"A lot of them live in apartments and don't have gardens. A lot of them haven't been in any fit state to walk down the stairs, let alone go for a run.

"It is less than ideal but we have to try and attack these two games and see what we can get."

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