Rotherham United have unique hurdle to overcome in play-off chases - it needs solving | OneFootball

Due to the injuries caused by the state of the training facilities Rotherham have been without a full squad in the past few seasons

Rotherham United have bounced between relegation and promotion in the past six of their last eight seasons. Notoriously known as the “Yo-Yo” club of the EFL, Rotherham have successfully achieved promotion through the play-offs or fallen short due to poor relegation seasons.

In the past three seasons, however, Rotherham have stuttered and fallen from the consistent inconsistency they showed in the past decade. One aspect that played a huge part of this was the state of injuries to key players and the quantity of injuries sustained to the Millers over a season.

Andre Green, Tyler Blackett, Cameron Humphries, Sean Morrison and Sean Raggett have all sustained long-term to season-ending injuries amid the tumultuous seasons Rotherham have sustained the past few years.

All these injuries occurred whilst midweek on the training pitches, an issue that has persisted into the most current season for the Millers.

Despite a £2 million investment in the summer of 2024, the pitches have, once again, proved themselves a hurdle in Rotherham’s attempt to head back to the Championship.

What the issue is for Rotherham

Upon investigating the state of the training pitches, there are many issues that arise.

Leam Richardson first addressed this and had issues with the situation when the team were forced to train on the pitches of New York Stadium and calling training days off completely due to waterlogged pitches at the training pitches at Roundwood.

This, along with the training pitches being situated on a hill, means the pitches are on a slope and waterlogged occasionally, which leads to strain on hamstrings and various other muscle groups used for explosive power.

In turn, this caused a vast majority of players to gain long-term injuries and be unable to contribute to key parts of the season. With various other players having shorter injuries, the path to promotion this season dwindled and relegation in the previous season was a certainty by Christmas.

The reasons for these promotions and relegations are not simply down to the training pitch, but the lack of a squad bred a lack of consistency and the lack of key players bred poor performances, which caused the downfall of the club.

The 2024/2025 season was a disappointing one for all connected with Rotherham football club, but the disappointing results of the season may have been subsidised by the squad not being depleted as often as it was.

There have been multiple occasions where Rotherham have had utilise players out of position to ensure they could put out 11 senior players.

What happens next season for Rotherham

Due to Rotherham not owning their training pitches and having already spent £2 million on the facilities, it is hard to imagine what more can be done to ensure the training pitches are to the standard they should be expecting from a side wanting to break into and maintain Championship status.

As a result, the potential for long-term status should be to invest in training facilities of their own, which is easier said than done.

Clubs go into debt for spending too much on training facilities, so for Rotherham to simply “buy a training facility” is too naive.

However, what the club should do is own their own facilities. Only renting for the previous 10 years could be seen as more of a financial burden on the club than buying facilities as an asset to add worth to the club.

In turn, the quality of facility may be a turning point for certain players – if it is between themselves and a club of a similar level, the place you train and work every day will come into consideration when deciding where to move to.

Modern players often require facilities such as recovery rooms, swimming pools and ice baths due to the strains and aches of the modern game to achieve top performance. Rotherham players are no different in their approach to the modern game.

Recovery is as important as training, which may have, again, caused the increase in injuries within the Millers camp.

For Rotherham, the key hurdle they need to overcome is injuries. The past two seasons have been wrought by them and a depleted squad which thereby have caused Rotherham to lose their way.

If Matt Hamshaw can retain his squad and keep them fit and firing, Rotherham have a good a chance as anyone to make the play-offs and promotion.