Georgie Kelly and Grant Hall's muscle tears set to rule Rotherham United pair out for at least a month

The Millers have been boosted by the return to full fitness of midfielder Ollie Rathbone but such is the nature of things for them at present, every silver lining seems to have a cloud.

"Georgie Kelly has got a tear in his calf and Grant Hall has got a tear in his hamstring," revealed manager Matt Taylor ahead of the Boxing Day game at home to Stoke City.

"We (also) had three players miss the start of the week through illness.

"It's certainly coming at us from every angle, not just on the pitch but on the training ground as well.

"As with everything in life, sometimes you've got to dust yourselves down and get on with it.

"I would imagine both (Kelly and Hall) will be a minimum of month. They don't seem significant enough to to go beyond the six-week mark but they're both back from recent muscular injuries as well.

"It's a real shame for both players involved. We'll support them through the next week and then they'll back to some sort of movement patterns.

"It's a kick in the gonads for both players and myself as manager because these are important players. They both came on in the latter stages last week and have big parts to play moving forward so it's a real shame."

Kelly is a cult figure amongst the Rotherham fans having scored the goal which secured their promotion back to the Championship last season. Despite mainly being used from the bench, he has added three more goals this term, two in Yorkshire derbies against relegation rivals Huddersfield Town and Hull City.

Former Middlesbrough centre-back Hall has made 14 Championship starts and two substitute appearances in his first season as a Miller, though things have been a bit stop-start since Taylor took over in October.

Much better news is that Rathbone has trained well this week after being limited to 25 minutes from the bench in last week's 3-0 defeat at the Hawthorns.

"Olly seems fine," said Taylor. "The one plus out of the West Brom game was Olly.

"He's such an honest player he can't go half-tilt. Olly is all-in so if he played we were so conscious of any niggles.

"He dropped out of training on the Tuesday, had a scan on the Wednesday and didn't train on the Thursday. We didn't feel it was right to put him in the starting line-up.

"He's come through unscathed and he's had a couple of day's training under his belt. We expect him to be fit, which is a real bonus from where he was the previous Tuesday."