Lampard Provided Injury Boost Ahead Of Stoke City Clash

Manager Frank Lampard has been handed an injury boost ahead of Wednesday night’s Sky Bet Championship fixture against Stoke City.

Tom Lawrence has been back training in recent days after missing the previous six games with a foot injury.

The attacker picked up the injury as he netted the opening goal in the 1-1 draw against Ipswich Town last month.

And there is also good news on the injury front for Mason Mount, who has been missing since January.

“Tom is in the squad tomorrow and Mason won’t be in the squad, but him, along with Craig Bryson, will be training and resting over the break and hopefully ready to go for Rotherham at home at the end of the month and onwards,” Lampard told RamsTV.

Elsewhere there is good news regarding the injury sustained to Mason Bennett.

He limped out of Saturday’s 1-1 draw against Sheffield Wednesday in the first half and the manager provided an update on his situation.

“He has got a groin strain and it should be two to three weeks, so the other side of the international break,” he said. “It has timed quite nicely, if it can be. Hopefully we can get him right for after that. It is at the good end of the diagnosis and hopefully short-term.”

Whilst the manager was disappointed to not pick up all three points on Saturday against the Owls, he was encouraged by the Rams’ attacking threat.

“We did have a lot of late chances on Saturday and that was a big positive of the game,” Lampard commented.

“I thought we played pretty well in patches but we finished really strong and you would expect or hope that one of those would go in and it continues the winning run having won a few days before.

“That is sometimes the way it goes, we know this Championship and what it throws up and it still manages to knock us into sixth place which is nice stat on its own and we want to stay there.

“We want to continue that, particularly going into the break. You want to take a nice feeling and a nice momentum into it.”

Momentum is key in the Championship. The Rams have picked up four points from their last two games and will be buoyed after moving into the play-off positions at the weekend and it’s the aim now to stay there.

“We have an opportunity to do that, albeit against a very strong team who were probably a lot of people’s favourites to win the Championship going into this season with the personnel, so we can’t look away from that. It is going to be a tough match and one we have to be ready for.

“It is a home game and we are off the back of a win and a draw and in sixth position even though we know we have had a tough patch recently, so it is completely up to us now.”