Gary Rowett reveals motivation behind Benik Afobe’s performance v Huddersfield

Benik Afobe has been on loan since the summer and made 20 appearances for Gary Rowett’s side so far this season. 

However, he will be forced to miss Saturday’s game as Millwall travel to his parent club Stoke City who he has not made a league appearance for since the 2019-20 season.

The Millwall boss says he thinks this gave the player some extra motivation midweek as he scored a brace against Huddersfield Town and nearly walked away with a hat-trick after hitting the post and the crossbar.

Rowett told London News: “I think that [missing the Stoke game] probably gave him a little bit of extra motivation to put it all out there last night, knowing that he almost gets a nice breather.

“He probably doesn’t want a breather, what striker would after scoring two goals and creating lots of chances? The reality is he won’t be available.

“The challenge of yet another player missing doesn’t really faze us because it seems the more players we’ve had missing the more results we get. Maybe that galvanises the players who are available.”

Despite being prepared to cope without him on Saturday, Rowett is also looking forward to him returning to the team as he said: “Seeing somebody coming back will hopefully give us a boost, once we get through to these last eight games.”

The Verdict:

Afobe will be really disappointed to be missing out on Saturday’s game coming off the back of two goals in one game.

The last thing any striker wants after that is someone putting the brakes on them, they want to start a streak and carry on.

That being said, he will not be able to play so Afobe needs to take the time to rest and get himself ready for after the international break.

Millwall sit two points off the play-offs with eight games to go so it’s