Wilmot blow as defender is ruled out for campaign
BEN Wilmot is set to miss the remainder of the season as a result of the knee injury he sustained in the 1-1 draw with Millwall.
The centre-back has started all three of Swansea City’s post-lockdown fixtures to date, keeping a clean sheet against Middlesbrough before featuring against Luton and Gary Rowett’s side.
However, the 20-year-old was left limping late on during Tuesday night’s draw at The Den.
After attempting to see out the remainder of the game, Wilmot was replaced by Chelsea loanee Marc Guehi for the final seven minutes of regular time.
Yesterday, Steve Cooper revealed Wilmot had returned to his parent club, Watford, where they will take a closer look at the injury.
“Ben is going to be out for a minimum of a month, so for the remainder of the league campaign,” Cooper said.
“There’s possibly play-offs after that, but they (Wilmot and Joe Rodon) won’t feature at all.
“As I said directly after the Millwall game, if you were going to pick up an injury, the last position you’d want it to be was at centre-back.
“It’s unfortunate, there’s no doubt about that, but we’ll never cry about injuries. What is unfortunate is that we’ve seen a lot of muscle injuries because of the nature of what’s gone on in terms of the preparations for games and the actual schedule. But these are contact injuries.
“Ben, in going up for a header, landed unnaturally and Joe was just a block in training. It was so innocuous and just an unfortunate situation. That makes it even more of a disappointment, but we have to get on with it. There’s no time for looking back, you can only look forward.
“It’s still settling down with Ben. They’re saying a month. What we needed to know quickly was if he’d be available in the next couple of weeks, and it was a definite no.
“He’s gone back to Watford today, they obviously want to check him out being his parent club. Their medics and our medics will get together and agree on what is the right plan for him.
“It’s a real blow for Ben because he was doing so well, we were very happy with the way he came back and he worked his way into the team.
“There weren’t many positives out of the Luton game, but I thought he was our best player.
“He did well against Middlesbrough as well, so I’m really gutted for the lad as well as ourselves on that one.
“We have to adapt with the squad that we have. We maybe have to mix things around. We won’t be the only club with an unfortunate story like that.
“We see the situation that we’re in as a really good opportunity, regardless of fit and whose available. We’ll just have to go fit it.”
The news on the Hornets loan star comes as a major blow to Cooper who is already without Mike van der Hoorn and Rodon.
Dutchman van der Hoorn has not featured for the Swans since the 1-0 win over Charlton at the Liberty Stadium in January but is edging ever closer to a return from a knee injury. However, he is not available to start against Sheffield Wednesday.
As for Rodon, he has missed all three of Swansea’s fixtures since the 2019/20 campaign restarted. And it has since been revealed he will miss the club’s final six games of the season due to a fresh ankle problem.
It leaves Swansea with only Guehi and academy product Ben Cabango as the two fit central defenders, though Kyle Naughton can also operate in the role.
Wilmot made a total of 23 appearances for the Swans under Cooper and scored two goals, one of which was a memorable winner in the derby against Cardiff City in October.