José Morais has confirmed that Matt Mills will miss the trip to Birmingham City this weekend.
The defender, who signed for Barnsley during the January transfer window, has sustained an ankle injury and will be unavailable for the Reds’ crunch game at St. Andrews.
“Matt Mills will be out for some days,” confirmed Morais. "This is the only one. He twisted his ankle and it’s swollen, so he will be out of this game.
"He’s an important player and I believe that we have others who can do the same job and I’m happy that we have replacements for players who are injured, because it’s normal - it can happen.
"We have another player, Adam Jackson, who is ready to play, Matty Pearson is also another one. Ethan Pinnock is not ready because he just came back from injury, but we have solutions."
The Reds are looking to bounce back from Tuesday evening’s 2-1 defeat at home to Burton Albion when they travel to the Midlands on Saturday.
Morais made tactical changes against the Brewers, as Barnsley bombarded the visitors after the interval. The Portuguese changed from a 4-4-2 to 4-3-3 midway through the second half in a bid to improve the Reds’ fortunes - a decision that almost paid off.
“I will make changes, because it’s important to make changes,” continued Morais. "I have ideas about how the game can be, because the opponent is different.
"I will have to make some changes according to the feelings that I have about the performance that we want and we need to achieve what we want.
“It’s not that I don’t want to make changes, I didn’t want to - it doesn’t mean that I won’t make changes. Now, after one game with the team, I know more things and have more information and I am able to take different decisions, and this is what I will do. This is what the job is.”
Birmingham were thrashed 5-0 by play-off chasing Brentford on Tuesday night. Ollie Watkins opened and finished the scoring for the Bees, with Florian Jozefzoon, Neal Maupay and an own goal from former Barnsley defender Marc Roberts compounding the Blues’ misery at Griffin Park.
Steve Cotterill’s side have lost three consecutive Championship games - conceding nine goals and scoring none in the process. But Morais is solely focussed on preparing Barnsley for another big encounter.
“They had a big defeat and they lost three points, that’s the main thing,” said the Reds’ Head Coach. "We had a small defeat and we lost three points. The main thing is that you can win three points in the next game.
“It’s an interesting team; it’s a team that is trying to play football from the back - building the game from the back. They have experienced central defenders, with good leadership. Jacques Maghoma is a player who is quick, fast. Jeremie Boga is a player that I know from my time at Chelsea.
"Sam Gallagher is an interesting striker, Cheikh Ndoye is an interesting midfielder. They have an experienced goalkeeper in David Stockdale, so I know enough of the team to be aware of the situations we can face in the game and this is what I will inform my players, for them to be ready for all the situations they can expect in the game.
"I’m not thinking about Birmingham and the way they are thinking. I’m thinking about how we think and they way we think to have the right mindset to achieve the points we want to achieve.
"I believe we can get a result in Birmingham, I believe we can get a result in Hull, I believe we can get a result against Derby. I believe.
“I believe that they are very, very important games. I believe that we have a kind of excitement to say lets do what we have to do, lets really go for it and challenge ourselves in terms of what we can do."