Barnsley boss on why Georgie Gent has been left out of squad, Jack Shepherd and an injury boost ahead of Rotherham United
BARNSLEY head coach Conor Hourihane has confirmed that Georgie Gent has been left out of his squad over the past few weeks due to the fact that he has not hit the daily standards that he wants from his players.
Gent has not been involved in a match-day squad since the home game with Cardiff City in March 10.
Despite the Reds being down in terms of options at left-back, the former Blackburn Rovers man has not been part of the squad of late.
Jack Shepherd has been switched from centre-half to left-back to fill in. Nathanael Ogbeta has missed some games as well and was ineligible for Monday's game against parent club Plymouth Argyle.
On Gent, whose last appearance was on February 21, Hourihane, whose side visit Rotherham United in a Yorkshire derby on Saturday, said: "Georgie has played a couple of (under) 21s games.
"And look I think I've seen a little bit of a clamour, and people kind of need to understand the context around things behind closed doors that they don't see.
"There's a certain application; a certain standard that you need to meet every single day.
"You need to train properly, you need to turn up on time; you need to apply yourself properly to get in the squad and to get in the team.
"And for me, Georgie, over these last few weeks, hasn't met that.
"So, he's been told. Other people have been told along the course of the season, it doesn't mean that the door's closed on Georgie at all, but he needs to meet a standard and a professionalism that I expect from every single player."
Shepherd has had some tough moments filling in at left-back, none moreso that on Monday when he had a very difficult afternoon against Argyle.
Hourihane, whose side are winless in their past six matches, added: "I think with Shep, we put him left-back now four or five games ago, something like that.
"I thought against two games back-to-back when he played left-back against Exeter and against Cardiff, we had real positive results in those two games.
"We wanted to stick with him and he gives us height and he gives us a little bit more physicality from set plays.
"For example, Plymouth, it was a big, big strength of theirs and we wanted as much height in the team as possible. I thought the lads dealt with the set-play scenario really, really well.
"Obviously, we didn't get the result, of course, and we conceded poor goals, but in terms of actual set plays, Burton Albion was the same.
"Obviously, we started with Shep at left-back, but that quickly changed with the Owen O'Connell situation and went into centre-half.
"But again, they had a big physical, direct style of play with two big strikers off the top of the pitch, so we wanted extra height in the team from that point of view as well. So, that's been Shep really at left-back."
Some good news on the injury front sees Earl back in contention having been out since January with a foot injury sustained ahead of the FA Cup tie at Liverpool.
Hourihane said: "Josh Earl will be back, which is a big positive, so that's good. He's been on the grass now for about seven days.
"The Easter weekend games came too quick for him, so he's been on the grass again all this week.
"If he can get through the next couple of days, he'll be in contention for the game as well, so that's a big plus.
"Other than that really, we are where we are, so the nursing of the couple of injuries that we're having a look at, we'll just have to see if they come through or not."
On whether Earl will feature at the AESSEAL New York Stadium, he continued: "It's going to be a 50-50 one, if I'm honest.
"From Rotherham now, we don't stop until the end of the season, so do we want to risk one or two for one game, or are we going to look at maybe the last four or five, having people in a good shape?"