Liverpool defender Calum Scanlon may see his season end early after suffering a hamstring injury on loan at Millwall – his second serious injury this campaign.
Scanlon was forced off early on in only his third start back for Millwall this month, having spent the previous four months out with a stress fracture in his back.
It came after the 19-year-old established himself as a key player for new manager Alex Neil, scoring his first senior goal in a 2-2 draw with Cardiff four days previous.
But having exited a 1-0 win at Luton early, Scanlon then underwent a scan to determine the extent of his hamstring injury.
And providing an update this week, Neil confirmed that the damage was severe and the expectation is that his season will be over.
“Calum’s got a grade three [tear] on his hamstring,” he told reporters including Southwark News‘ Will Scott.
“Calum will be probably twelve weeks, so maybe a season-finisher for Calum.”
It is a bitter blow for the teenager, who is a natural left-back but had played further forward on the wing since his return under Neil.
He spent his recovery from the previous back issue at the AXA Training Centre and will likely now return to Merseyside for further treatment when the immediate pain subsides.
A 12-week layoff would take Scanlon to the final week of April, with the final game of the Millwall’s campaign set for May 3 and a trip to Burnley in the Championship.
Even if he has recovered before then, it is highly unlikely that he would be considered for that clash at Turf Moor – while Millwall are unlikely to finish in the playoffs either.
Scanlon is not the only Liverpool youngster whose loan spell has been impacted by injury, with a decision yet to be made over whether Luke Chambers, out with a back injury of his own, will stay at Wigan beyond Monday’s deadline.
Chambers was set to undergo another scan after resuming light training outdoors at the AXA, with Wigan manager Shaun Maloney describing it as “50-50” whether he would rejoin the Latics.
“I think there’s still a little bit of doubt regarding Luke,” he told the Wigan Observer‘s Paul Kendrick earlier this month.
Maloney added: “It’s still 50-50 on whether he comes back, but obviously we’re all desperate to have him stay with us.”
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