Rotherham United midfielder Jamie Lindsay has been ruled out of action for two months due to a hamstring injury.
Lindsay suffered the injury in the first half of the Millers’ Championship victory at Preston North End last weekend.
The 25-year-old Scotsman had a scan on Monday, and Rotherham boss Paul Warne revealed the grim news after seeing his side beaten at home by Cardiff City on Tuesday night.
“He’s had a scan, its bad news,” Warne told The72. “I think it will be around eight weeks give or take.
“He’s seeing a specialist tomorrow for a bit more advice about the injection process and all that. It’s a severe hamstring pull. It’s his first one and his first muscle injury.
“I know what Jamie is like, he’ll tell me he’s fit to play Friday so we just have to manage him properly and get him back, we don’t want a reoccurrence of it. I reckon it will be at least eight weeks.”
It is a particularly severe blow for the club, having worked so hard in the January window to bring in another midfield player.
Warne had identified that area as the one in which the squad needed bolstering, having only had five players to fit into the four midfield positions in the 3-5-1-1 deployed by Rotherham since the new year.
Lewis Wing was brought in to add a sixth player, but the likely loss of Lindsay has put them back to square one in that regard.
“We’re now back down to five (midfielders) again,” said Warne. “We highlighted in the window that we needed another body in there. We’re just back to where we were. It is good that we got one in because, if we didn’t get one in, we would be struggling.”
However, the Millers chief added that he would be unlikely to dip into the free agent market to pick up a replacement for Lindsay.
“I think that the way we play, how athletic we are and the physical demands we put on our players, I just think I’m not sure,” he said.
“If a free agent came on that was all of them then maybe, but from what I’ve seen the free agents are predominantly the ones who haven’t played for a period of time. It would have to be something pretty special.”
