Rotherham United may need to find a new way forward for youngster Lenny Agbaire

The Millers had hoped that a series of injections would lead to the centre-half being able to manage the condition and remain available for selection.

However, the 20-year-old was forced to pull out of the squad for yesterday's 3-0 League One win over Lincoln City when he experienced discomfort during the warm-up at AESSEAL New York Stadium.

Rotherham are now weighing up whether an operation is the best way forward for the summer signing who had returned from a five-week absence to make a brief appearance as a stoppage-time substitute in the 2-2 draw with Burton Albion last Tuesday.

“It's his groins again,” manager Matt Hamshaw confirmed. “We, obviously, have to get to the bottom of it. We'll just have to wait and see. We've tried to go about everything in the right way and he's still feeling something. That generally means bad news.”

Another Rotherham defender, Reece James, played through a similar complaint for much of last term before undergoing a hernia op in the final week of the campaign.

“It could be surgery for Lenny,” Hamshaw said. “Honestly, I don't know. We have to make sure that he's all right. People will probably say: ‘Well, he should have had the op straight away.’ But if we open him up and it doesn't go right, he's out for even longer.

“That's the way we treat this injury (with injections). Reece had it and played a lot of games. Look, every individual is different. I don't think any worse of Lenny, he's just feeling it. We'll get it looked after.”

Rotherham produced their best display of the season to demolish the Imps and the boss was pleased to have Marvin Kaleta among his options on the bench following the attacker's return from a late-September hamstring problem.

“He' a game-changer,” Hamshaw said. “We've got a few of them. There's Josh Benson, and Martin Sherif looked back to himself a little bit more when he came on. There were a lot of positives.”