Skipper Frecklington invited to have his say

ACTION MAN...Lee FrecklingtonACTION MAN...Lee Frecklington
ACTION MAN...Lee Frecklington

SKIPPER Lee Frecklington will be given more of a say in team affairs in Rotherham United’s late push for Championship points.

The midfielder has been plagued by injury this season and Paul Warne wants his return as a substitute against Aston Villa last weekend to be the start of an uninterrupted run.

The interim manager believes the role of a football captain should be more than just wearing the armband and doing the minimum and insists Frecklington can bring his experience into play off the field as well as on it.

Speaking ahead of tonight's home clash with promotion chasers Brighton, Warne said: “ I think football should take on the example of rugby where the captains have a bigger part to play. In football they are mostly pretty cosmetic. They flick the coin, pick the end and that’s sort of it really.

“I think captains should have more responsibility. It’s an honour to skipper your team so I pulled Frecks in today and had a chat with him and asked what his thoughts were and took his input on board.

“Obviously I pick the team with the staff but I think he should at least have an opinion on that. I have a lot of time for Frecks and it’s a boost to have him back.”

Frecklington is pushing for a start tonight and Jon Taylor has shaken off a knock from Saturday and will figure. However the club are still monitoring leading the fitness of leading scorer Danny Ward and defender Stephen Kelly is out for three weeks.

With Darnell Fisher, Joel Ekstrand, Dexter Blackstock, Jonson Clarke-Harris and goalkeeper Richard O’Donnell filling a busy treatment room, the squad looks thin again ahead of one of the toughest fixtures on the calendar. Second-top Brighton have been stung by two successive defeats and won’t want to suffer a third to a team now 18 points adrift at the bottom.

Added Warne: “A week ago I thought the squad was starting to look something like and I had the best bench I had in a while, and then a couple of games later we’ve a few injuries. It’s not like they’re all muscle injuries, some of them are more serious and there’s not much we can do about that.

“We went toe to toe with Villa on Saturday and had a right go. The players have been positive yesterday and today and they just want to start getting the results the majority of their performances deserve.”