GARY Rowett has revealed George Honeyman suffered from a tight quad that left him feeling like he “couldn’t run properly” in Millwall’s friendly win over Gillingham.
The Lions emerged as 2-0 victors at Priestfield as they got their pre-season off to a strong start.
Kevin Nisbet converted a first half penalty after Duncan Watmore was fouled in the box before Aidomo Emakhu powered a late effort home to help Millwall over the line.
The only real negative for the London side was an issue suffered by Honeyman, who pulled up after 20 minutes.
After receiving treatment from medical staff, he was subbed off for Danny McNamara.
After the game Rowett said: “He felt his quad was a little bit tight. Thursday we worked to almost a full match level so of course players are going to be tight, players are going to be a little bit sore.
“And we hope everyone can get through but you’re occasionally going to get one or two players who are going to break. And that’s what you have to do to push them to the next level.
“He just felt a little bit tight, he wasn’t sure if he pulled anything, he just felt he couldn’t run properly and therefore at that point, take him off.”
Honeyman’s issue triggered the first of 12 substitutions from Rowett as 10 changes were made at half-time before Alex Mitchell came back on for McNamara in the closing stages.
The first half team created several chances and could have gone in at the break with more than a 1-0 lead.
But the second half team failed to match that same intensity, something which the Millwall manager took note of.
He said: “[I was] semi-pleased with the first half performance, I thought the second half performance was actually really poor and for quite a senior team I would expect us to show a little more drive, to press and to get on the ball.
“But we know sometimes these games just peter out a little bit. So the fact that all bar George Honeyman got through it unscathed is a massive positive.
“It’s more minutes in the legs and it’s more opportunities for young players like Aidomo to show what they can do.”