Arsenal loanee Brooke Norton-Cuffy missed out on Millwall’s game at the weekend through injury, but the problem isn’t believed to be serious.
For the first time since he joined the club in August, Brooke Norton-Cuffy missed out on the Millwall squad for a Championship game on Sunday, with his loan side losing 2-1 to Coventry City without him.
Millwall confirmed at the start of the game that Norton-Cuffy was absent through injury, and club manager Joe Edwards gave a further update after the game.
“It’s not serious,” Edwards began. “Even to the point where… is it a mild hamstring injury or is it just strong fatigue? We’re actually quite unsure, the scans aren’t definitive enough.
“But it was enough to rule him out of training this week and the game today and in terms of having two more games this week in Ipswich and Sheffield Wednesday, with Brooke it’s kind of going to be day-by-day, assess how he goes on the training pitch.”
“Brooke is one who sometimes you forget how young he is and how much football he’s played at this level, which is a physically demanding level,” Edwards continued.
“He has a lot asked of him every game with the position he plays and the style of player he is.
“So we’ve just had to look after him this week and he wasn’t able to be a part of it.”
As mentioned, this was the first Championship squad Norton-Cuffy had missed since joining, having appeared in all 27 of the previous matches, making 24 starts.
From an Arsenal perspective, it’s great to see the 20-year-old getting so many games. But it’s also unsurprising that he’s started to become a bit fatigued by February.
Edwards is right to highlight that the Championship has a demanding schedule full of intense physical battles.
It’s a lot for a young player, and whilst Norton-Cuffy has dealt with it well so far, it seems it had become too much this week.
Millwall have a two home games this week for Norton-Cuffy to potentially make his comeback, one against Ipswich Town on Wednesday at 20:00 GMT, and another on Saturday at 15:00 GMT.