Rotherham United physios on overdrive ahead of Coventry City trip as fatigue catches up on key players

The Millers looked leggy in defeat at home to Hull City on Saturday and had to bring Ollie Rathbone and Ben Wiles off with muscle injuries manager Matt Taylor put down to fatigue.

Many are in the same boat – not just at Rotherham but elsewhere – already in a season condensed by having a World Cup plonked in the middle of it.

The Millers have six more games before the Championship goes on hold for the Qatar tournament – five of them away from home – and whilst the game in hand represents a chance to jump up the table, it feels as much a case of gritting their teeth and getting on with it.

"Very few players at this stage of the season are 100 per cent, unfortunately," said Taylor, who welcomed his former Exeter City colleague Jonathan Hill to the coaching staff on Monday.

"That's the way the league is and the way professional football is. I think you saw that with Ollie at the weekend, and possibly Ben Wiles.

"There's other players who probably aren't in a position to start the game on the back of how their bodies are feeling through no fault of their own.

"It's just the rigours of the games and the intensity of the level and there's some players who are playing more consistently now than at the start of the season.

"I'm very much trying to find the balance of who's available for which games and when they are available, making sure they're as close to their peak as they can possibly be until we get that four-week break (for the World Cup in November/December) when can look after and rebuild a few, plus add fitness to others.

"Bristol City's our first game back after that (on December 10) and we hope to have a clean bill of health across the board.

"The busiest people at the football club are the physios, the S&C (strength and conditioning) coaches, the sports rehab staff trying to maintain these players."

The game was meant to be played in August but was postponed because of the terrible problems the Coventry Arena – owned by rugby union crisis club Wasps – had with its pitch after the Commonwealth Games rugby sevens tournaments.

Mark Robins’s Sky Blues are slowly starting to catch up the games and have won four and drawn one of their last six to go from adrift at the bottom to able to jump out of the relegation zone at Middlesbrough's expense with victory.

What part if any midfielders Rathbone and Wiles will play will be decided on the day.

"We'll make a decision on Tuesday but both will do well to start the game and play 90 minutes," explained the manager. "Their injuries seem to be caused by fatigue or overloading.

"But we'll make a decision as late as possible because you want your best players out on the pitch.

"If either player didn't feature, it might be an opportunity to give them the best chance for the weekend."