Rotherham United short on numbers as Carabao Cup bogey side Morecambe come calling

ROTHERHAM United will be without a clutch of senior players as they bid to see off the challenge of lower-league opposition in the Carabao Cup tomorrow night.

The Championship Millers are in first-round action at AESSEAL New York Stadium against fourth-tier Morecambe, the team who knocked them out of the competition last season and also in 2016.

Manager Matt Taylor doesn't expect centre-half Grant Hall or new-boy striker Andre Green to feature after both missed last Saturday's 4-1 opening-day loss at Stoke City through hamstring and groin injuries respectively.

Right-back Lee Peltier limped off with a calf issue in that game following his introduction as a half-time substitute and has no chance of making the Shrimps clash.

In addition, midfielder Jamie Lindsay (achilles), winger Shane Ferguson (hernia surgery) and centre-forward Tom Eaves (calf) aren't yet back in full training and remain unavailable.

"We can afford to miss one or two," manager Matt Taylor said. "When it gets to half a dozen and above we are weaker off the back of it."

Rotherham had been prepared to give Hall, who has a history of hamstring trouble, until the morning of the Stoke game to prove his fitness for the bet365 Stadium contest but in the end never considered the 31-year-old for selection.

"That was partly because of the experience we have had with him in the past," Taylor said. "He needs a bit of training and a bit of building up. We missed him, we needed him."

Hall suffered his latest setback in the final friendly of pre-season, the 3-0 win at League One Lincoln City on July 29