, Barnsley defender suffers fresh setback and could miss rest of season

Barnsley defender suffers fresh setback and could miss rest of season

Barnsley defender Liam Kitching has suffered another setback in his injury recovery, with head coach Valerien Ismael now unable to guarantee if he will play this season.

The 21-year-old was signed by the Reds from League Two outfit Forest Green Rovers in January, becoming Ismael’s first signing in charge at Oakwell.

But Kitching has yet to feature since making the step up to the Championship because of injury, struggling with his groin ever since his arrival.

He has had setbacks in his recovery since and Ismael has revealed to The72 that, after being more optimistic last week, there had been more bad news for the centre-back.

“We cannot come forward with him, so we have to patient,” said the Frenchman. “It’s not good news for us.

“Last week we saw some good signs and thought maybe he could come back quickly but he had another pain and its difficult. We have to reduce completely (his work), we have to do some checks and control (him).

“We will see what has happened and what we have to decide with him. It will be difficult now to see him in the next few weeks.”

Pushed on whether he might not be able to make his Barnsley debut at all this season, Ismael added: “We cannot give you a prediction.

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“It was a great feeling (last week), you see the improvement in the training and on the pitch, and the week after it was backwards. It was bad news, painful for him, and that’s why we can’t say anything at the moment.”

Otherwise the injury front is looking relatively clear, the only other current absentee being fellow defender Ben Williams who has been ruled out of the whole campaign with an ACL injury suffered in pre-season.

“Everything is nice,” Ismael said of the state of his squad. “This is the good thing at the moment, that we can continue with consistency, we can keep the squad together.”

Barnsley are on a phenomenal run of form, winning five matches on the trot to climb all the way up to seventh in the Championship table, just one point shy of the play-off positions.

That run was started by victory at Brentford, when they ended the Bees’ 21-match unbeaten league run, and on Saturday was extended with a win over Millwall, who had been enjoying their own nine-match run without defeat.

Those results give Ismael added confidence that his charges can continue their own streak on Wednesday night, when they travel to another side in good form, Queens Park Rangers.

Mark Warburton’s side have enjoyed a dramatic revival since the turn of the year, winning seven of their 10 Championship matches, and the Reds boss expects a tough fixture.

“It’s a big challenge,” he said. “Millwall were on a perfect run, Brentford were on an unbelievable run. We needed to compete to give another great performance and tomorrow will be exactly the same.

“They are a very strong side and we have to stay focused on our game for sure. We have to be ready. It’s a good team and it will be another good fight.”

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