Marshall misses out but could be ready for Cherries
DERBY County manager Wayne Rooney hopes keeper David Marshall will be back for tomorrow night’s home game against Bournemouth but Tom Lawrence has suffered a setback in his bid to return to action.
Marshall had started the previous 14 League games and his absence against Rotherham United saw Kelle Roos step in for only his second League start of the campaign and his first since October.
“He’s not well,” Rooney said when asked about Marshall.
“David has tested negative for Covid-19, so it’s not that.
“He just hasn’t felt well in the last couple of days and, hopefully, he will be ready for Tuesday.”
But Lawrence will miss out again when the Cherries visit in the Championship tomorrow night.
The Welsh international forward limped off during the goalless draw against Stoke City on December 12.
He has sat out the League matches against Swansea City, Preston North End, Birmingham City, Sheffield Wednesday and Rotherham United.
“Tom was close (to a return) but he has had another setback,” Rooney said.
“He was out on the training pitch on Thursday but unfortunately he had a little bit of a reaction again, so could not train yesterday (Friday). So we will assess him on Monday.
“He won’t be available for Tuesday, he hasn’t trained enough.
“It is about getting him back fit and training now and building his fitness back up to be available to play.”
Rooney made no excuses for his team’s poor showing against Rotherham.
Both teams went into the contest at Pride Park Stadium in the bottom three of the Championship and the Rams crashed to a hugely-disappointing 1-0 defeat.
“Rotherham got what they deserved – I didn’t think we deserved anything out of the game,” said Rooney after his first game as Rams boss.
“We were sloppy, passing balls out of play, balls running under players’ feet. It was a very sloppy performance from us.
“Rotherham, as they do in every game, they play with an energy, they press really well and we didn’t seem confident enough to take the ball under pressure.
“So we have ourselves to blame, there are no excuses, I am not going to make any excuses for the performance or the result.
“I was expecting a good performance, a better performance than what we got.
“If we had got a point out of the game, we would have got away with one. I am disappointed.
“Over the 90 minutes we didn’t seem to be awake to the game.”