By Stephen 18
February 4 2005

Rushing players back from injury can be counter-productive. Will Millwall ever learn? That question is uppermost in the mind, after the news that Paul Ifill will be out for three months. Stephen Eighteen reports... They say it takes a certain type of player to prove a success at Millwall.

Even if they are lacking in skill and technical ability, a Lion can be taken into the hearts of their supporters through application, determination and guts.

We're talking Terry Hurlock and Harry Cripps. We're talking passion, pride and that all-important 100 per cent commitment.

But as any football fan that has followed the game diligently this past decade will know, things change.

New ideas and methods have shifted the traditions of football clubs to such a degree that Arsenal has gone from a byword of boredom to an analogy of attacking at its most awesome.

Once renowned for their leaky defence and powderpuff football, today's Chelsea gives as much away as an African drought when yesterday there was more on offer than an Indian monsoon.

Unfortunately for Millwall, the change in recent years has been something far more frustrating in nature.

It is ironic that while Millwall's top players of yesteryear are characterised by their hard as nails no-nonsense attitude, the current crop has been massively hindered by physical vulnerability.

The Lions are not the only club to have had to deal with injuries, but you would be hard-pressed to find a comparison that sees an entire generation of some of the game's most promising players hit with the same amount of degeneration as what has occurred at the Den.

The obvious, and most terminal case is Richard Sadlier. The mind boggles when you think what the Irishman might have achieved had that blasted hip not ended his career at just 24.

Many Millwall supporters, and the then manager Mark McGhee, go along with the theory that promotion to the Premiership would have followed had the striker been fit for the 2002/03 season.

And they were not alone. Of Steve Claridge's 346 (and counting) career strike partners, he rated the Irishman's all-round abilities as enough to place him numero uno on the list.

Theo Paphitis certainly coveted his talents; in Sadlier's mobile days the Lions chairman turned down multi-million pound offers from top-flight clubs to prize him away from the club, and the day of his retirement will always be remembered as black Thursday within the Millwall community.

To blow your mind even more, imagine Millwall's current status had Sadlier and Neil Harris been given the opportunity to develop a fully-fledged injury and illness free partnership in the club's current division.

Harris' prolific record in the old Division Two over three seasons around the turn of the millennium made it a frightening prospect.

It was barely a month after firing the Lions into Division One, and two years prior to Sadlier's painstaking decision to hang up his boots, that Harris was dealt what could have been a fatal blow to his life, let alone his football career.

And even though Harris came a long way from the shocking diagnosis of testicular cancer in June 2001, the statistics would never be the same again.

Gone were the 30-goal a season hauls, gone were the days when Harris' name was the first on the team sheet, and eventually, gone was 'Super Neil' from Millwall completely.

Just as Sadlier's potential in following up the 2001/02 season in Division One with many more impressive tallies was massive, so was Harris' in proving a hit at the level he never got a chance to prove himself at pre-cancer.

So what of the other absent starlets? The fact that Tim Cahill and Steven Reid were snapped up by Premiership clubs would suggest that they performed at optimum capacity while at Millwall, but both were not immune to injury blows.

Reid's Lions progress was stinted by a number of niggles, and his final season was massively frustrating, with ankle and knee problems at the beginning and end of the campaign severely limiting his appearances.

The winger's time at Blackburn has similarly been punctuated by physical upheaval.
Cahill may have always seemed indestructible, but he found himself on the sidelines for six months two seasons ago with the same torn cruciate knee ligaments that floored Mark Phillips, Paul Robinson and Joe Dolan twice.

With the four said jewels now retired or playing elsewhere, Paul Ifill is the only true star of the Championship season still with us.

And typically, Ifill cannot seem to buy a game for love nor money this season.
With each big-name sale, Ifill has become that little bit more important to the side.

When Reid was sold two years ago, Ifill was there to provide some valuable width, and when Cahill left last summer, the creative responsibility fell heavily on the 25-year-old's shoulders.

Millwall's league position is relatively solid at present, so one can only assume that they would have hit some impressive heights this season had Ifill played a half decent role in it.

The ankle injury he received on the opening day of the season at Plymouth has resulted in Ifill starting only six games this season.

Having tried to make a comeback on several occasions, it once again gave way in training last week, and the last resort could see it being dealt with by the surgeon's knife.

Given that it was also a niggling problem that put paid to Sadlier and that, like the Irishman, Ifill has played with the aid of painkillers on occasions, Millwall fans could be forgiven for fearing that lightning will strike twice.

But this is the time to throw negativity out of the window and a time not to panic.
The last thing in the world that Ifill needs is to be stuffed with tablets and selfishly rushed back into the fray for the sake of the club.

If it needs an operation, so be it. If it means he will not play again this season, so be it.

Ifill is a year older than Sadlier was when he hung up his boots, but young enough to be a special footballer for another decade.

Let's learn from past mistakes and save our one remaining gem for the future.