Rotherham United keeping a close eye on one Blackpool man in particular

The 25-year-old makes his first return to the AESSEAL New York Stadium as Blackpool visit on Wednesday with the Championship restarting following the Queen’s death.

Yates came through the youth team at the Millers but could never make his way into Warne’s side on a regular basis with 31 of his 52 appearances coming from the bench.

He was allowed to leave on loan in the 2019/20 season and flourished, scoring 14 goals in 36 appearances as Swindon won promotion to League One.

The Doncaster-born striker was then sold to Blackpool by the Millers for an undisclosed fee and Yates is enjoying life by the seaside, having scored 33 goals in 104 appearances.

He will return to South Yorkshire on Wednesday with the bit between his teeth.

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Boss Warne said: “They've got Jerry up front. We had a team meeting yesterday and showed them how hard Jerry works and what a good player he is.

"You sort of forget that there are only a few in our dressing room that played with him. He was brilliant here and I loved working with him.

"He actually came back and bought the coaching staff a bottle of champagne each which is really impressive as a character. He's a great kid who has done really well, as I always knew he would.

"I look forward to seeing him before and after the game but I won't enjoy watching him causing my back line any problems.”

The Millers’ South Yorkshire derby with Sheffield United was postponed on Saturday in the wake of the Queen’s passing but Warne still put his men through their paces in order to prepare for the midweek match with Blackpool.

"We delayed the start of training on Friday whilst we awaited the decision on the game because we didn't think it would go ahead,” he said.

"We did 11 v 11 on Friday and then trained them on Saturday. We didn't bring any fatigue into Monday but they covered the same sort of distances.

"We trained yesterday and we'll train today.

"You get many games called off as a footballer for things from waterlogged pitches to Covid, so it wasn't a massive challenge in terms of training plans really."