Shaun Williams to be in a knee brace for three months due to lateral ligament damage.

Shaun Williams will be in a knee brace for the next six weeks as he faces being ruled out of action for up to three months with lateral ligament damage.
The Millwall midfielder suffered the injury in last week’s 2-1 victory over Reading at The Den and sat out Saturday’s 3-1 defeat to Barnsley.
“It is one where, at the moment, no surgery is required,” said Lions manager Neil Harris. “His knee will be in a brace for a six-week period, just to stabilise it and try to repair the ligament – natural healing.
“It is very unfortunate for the boy and for us as a team. It just becomes a timing thing for the ligament to recover. It is estimated he’ll be out for 10-12 weeks.

“We’ll have to take it one step at a time.
“Shaun did it in the first-half of the Reading game in a challenge. He did exceptionally well to finish the match in the first place but he reported straight afterwards that he was struggling.
“We let it settle down and 48 hours later we sent him for a precautionary scan and got the bad news. It was a bit of a bolt out of the blue. We expected something in there – but not quite as serious a state as it is.”
Williams’ absence until the end of 2017 opens the door for Ryan Tunnicliffe – who made his first Championship start on Saturday for the Lions – and Ben Thompson.
“Tunni did okay in not a great team performance,” said Harris. “Ben has had to be patient and has found himself back on the bench in the last couple of games.

“This is the importance of having a squad, that if you lose a player for a period of time then someone fit comes in and seizes their opportunity.
“It is a misfortune for Willo but Ryan and Ben need to see it as a gain for them. They have to be doing everything in their powers to make sure they are performing – both individually and as a team – to stay in the side.”
One positive for Millwall is that striker Tom Elliott – missing with a quad muscle problem – should be back for their return to Championship action at Brentford on October 14.
“Tom is well on track,” said Harris. “He’s completed every stage of rehab needed and he’s hopefully going

to join in training later this week. We’re looking to welcome him back into the squad for the Brentford
game.
“You always want players coming back to get some minutes in the under-23s or training ground games if possible. But there are different ways to build players up.
“It is not like Tom has been out for  eight, 12, or 16 weeks. It is only four-and-a-bit weeks.
“He has covered quite a lot of fitness work during that period and he’ll be integrated into the training sessions too. That will help. We’ll also have to manage his workload as we go along.”