Rotherham United and a season plagued by injury after injury after injury

MIDWAY through last month Matt Taylor revealed that goalkeeper Josh Vickers was the only member of his first-team squad completely free of injury.

All available outfield players were carrying knocks or nursing niggles, the Rotherham United manager reckoned.

Less than a week later, Vickers suffered groin damage that ended his involvement in the Championship survival run-in.

It’s been that kind of year for the Millers: a campaign of absences, injections and Taylor having to change his starting 11 in virtually every match as the physical strain of chasing safety has taken its toll.

Several players have been ruled out for the season, most have sat out matches at some point, only Wes Harding, Richard Wood and Hakeem Odoffin of those at AESSEAL New York Stadium since opening day have avoided any time on the sidelines.

It’s a situation, Taylor says, that can’t continue.

“We’ve studied it at length,” said the boss who took the hot-seat in October. “The collision injuries just happen, it’s the muscle ones we feel we can do more as a club to prevent.

“We’ve gone into great detail: how much we train, when we train, what pitches the players train on, what they do after training in terms of treatment, the whole process of the medical department, absolutely everything.

“There’s also recruitment and recruiting body-hardened players. The ones who have been through 46-game Championship campaigns several times before and come through them relatively unscathed are the type we need to bring to this club. There will be changes in all areas at different stages.”

In the last week of the successful survival push, Vickers, Conor Washington, Grant Hall, Sean Morrison and Bailey Wright are long-term casualties, Chiedozie Ogbene, Tyler Blackett and Lee Peltier have hamstring concerns, Ollie Rathbone and Shane Ferguson are battling through groin trouble, Jordan Hugill and Cameron Humphreys are managing knee issues.

“There’s been a big turnover of players because of the injuries,” Taylor said. “We’ve never really had a settled, stable side. That is what the level of the Championship does to this group of players.”

The softness of the pitches at the club’s Roundwood base has been cited as a factor in the casualty count and work is already under way to improve them by the time the squad report back, after their summer break, around the end of June.

Taylor expects a number of changes to come into effect next season. In this one, meanwhile, the walking wounded have been a topic of discussion at every single press conference. The boss has given always given a weary smile to journalists before delivering the latest fitness bulletin.

“What we can’t have is me sitting here at this time next year feeling like we’ve been hampered by injuries and you guys asking the same questions because it’s still an issue,” he said.

The boss, who had a long career as a centre-half before stepping into management five years ago, gave an insight into how it feels to step over the white line knowing you’re going to be in physical discomfort.

“Nobody wants to play in pain,” he said. “Believe me, it’s not a nice thing to do. If you’re in pain you’re probably doing harm to your body. It’s a signal something isn’t right.

“You need your limbs to be in full working order and not to remind you every time you take a step, even more so when you’re trying to sprint at full speed or turn at full speed.

“This group are going above and beyond in relation to their pain thresholds. God knows how many injections there have been.”

There has been a reason why his squad have been willing to suffer.

Rotherham have been standing on the brink of staying in the second tier for the first time in four attempts in seven years and several players ignored the risk to themselves to put themselves in the firing line against Middlesbrough on Monday.

Vickers cheered them on from the West Stand, along with fellow missing men Washington, Hall, Morrison and Wright.

Said Taylor: “Everyone has been prepared to go through it because the prize at the end is so great.”

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MATT Taylor has singled out flying attacker Chiedozie Ogbene for his powers of durability in Rotherham United’s quest to hold on to their place in the Championship.

The winger is an explosive power athlete who should be more susceptible to muscle injuries than many other players.

However, he has nearly always been available for selection, even though he gets no downtime during international breaks because he is away on duty with the Republic of Ireland.

“He’s someone we can almost take for granted because he’s so resilient in terms of his body,” manager Taylor said.

“His body is a finely-tuned vessel that will take him to the high ends of English football and maybe the world stage with his Irish performances.”

Ironically, just a couple of days after the boss’s comments Ogbene limped out of the safety-sealing clash with Middlesbrough with a hamstring pull.

The 26-year-old, who is out of contract in the summer and has been offered a new deal, had a five-match spell in the treatment room in October because of a hamstring pull.

Apart from that, he has featured in every other second-tier fixture except one: the New Year’s Day trip to Millwall after he’d suffered a knock to his ankle at Huddersfield Town.

His ten goals make him the club’s top scorer this term and Taylor said: “His form has been consistently good. There is an understanding that he is our main man. He’s got threats that no-one else has got in our team. The opposition know that and try to nullify him more than anyone else in our starting group.”