Rotherham United: Ben Purrington attracting interest

Purrington spent the entirety of last season out on loan, first at AFC Wimbledon and then Charlton where he scored in the League One play-off final victory over Sunderland.

He has reported back to training with the Millers, but it seems unlikely that his future will be there.

Boss Paul Warne is known to favour Joe Mattock ahead of him, evidenced by Purrington playing less than 25 games since joining for £300,000 in January 2017 and the fact that the 23-year-old is keen to play games.

He would like to return to Charlton, who are one of the clubs understood to be interested this summer, but for now he remains a Rotherham player.

“There are a couple of clubs in for Ben,” Warne told the Star.

“I had a chat with him on the first day of pre-season training.

“I'm not going to force him out - I like him, I've never not liked him.

“It's just that in my mind Joe Mattock has just been a little bit ahead of him.

“If something comes in for Ben that he wants and the club want then I won't stand in his way.

“He might be here at the start of the season. He was in on Thursday, Friday and Monday.

“But I do know clubs are preparing bids so it's 'Watch this space' with him really.”

The Millers, who are hoping to sign several players this week, will step up their pre-season preparations ahead of their German training camp next Monday.

Warne is notoriously hard on his players as he tries to build fitness and camaraderie and midfielder Matt Crooks knows what to expect.

“I've Googled Barsinghausen already,” Crooks said of the club's destination.

“I wanted to see what the weather was like because I was hoping it would rain. If you're running all the time, I'd prefer to do it in the rain so it isn't as hard, but the day before I'd looked it was 35 degrees, so that isn't working in our favour,” Crooks added.

“There'll be lots of running, bike rides and more running, more bike rides and then we might see a football!”