Rotherham United manager Matt Taylor reveals next man in line as emergency centre-back

The Millers have only two fit specialists for the visit of the Championship's top-scorers, and with Lee Peltier and Sean Morrison recently back from injury themselves, manager Matt Taylor is not confident either will last the full game – even if Peltier surprised him on his return at Southampton a fortnight ago.

So Taylor has had little choice but to think about who else might fit in there, and has settled on Odoffin.

The 25-year-old, himself been out since September with a hamstring strain, is a central midfielder and under Taylor a more attacking one, but has experience at the back.

"Hakeem Odoffin can play centre-half," said Taylor, who played the position himself. "He's done it previously in his career.

"He's probably had more success with Rotherham higher up the pitch but he did it to a certain extent against Millwall (his last game).

"Will Sean Morrison be able to play 90 minutes? Probably not. Will Pelts (Peltier) be able to play 90 minutes? Probably not.

"It's important we have a couple more options in that position."

The Millers have been getting Odoffin used to the position again this week – but not too used to it.

"It's different pictures and different patterns and your body's in a different direction," said Taylor. "When you're at the back end of the pitch everything's in front of you, in midfield everything's around you.

"It's important we've had this week where Haks has been able to get acclimatised to that but he's still a midfield option first. You don't want to take other aspects away from his game because if he starts higher up I still want him breaking into the box, pressing well and getting a goal return."

To draw 1-1 at Southampton last time was hugely encouraging for a team who will be in the relegation zone on Saturday come what may, and Taylor is looking to build on that and home form better than results suggest.

"Our last game was Southampton, where we were as good as we have been, certainly away from home, this season – against a top-quality team at a huge stadium," he argued.

"All five of our home games I've taken real heart from.

"The Blackburn one, I don't think there's many people would say we wouldn't have gone on to win that one with 11 men at 2-0 up.

"Until that moment which we know was a mistake (Fred Onyedinma sent off for two yellow cards, the first later acknowledged as an error), that was a really strong performance against a good team. We drew that one, but we beat Norwich.

"Leicester for 75 minutes we were really good but couldn't sustain it.

"Preston came as a form team and we more than competed with them and bar the last 10 minutes of the Bristol City game despite not creating enough chances, the performance was where it needs to be.

"Now's the time to say I'd take a poor performance and three points, a clean sheet and the ball going off someone's backside, off the referee, hitting the linesman on his head and going in."