John Eustace gives Carlton Morris fitness latest after Derby selection questioned

John Eustace provides Carlton Morris injury update and explains Derby selection

Derby County manager John Eustace has revealed that Carlton Morris is expected to spend at least two weeks on the sidelines after suffering a calf injury.

The striker had featured in all but two minutes of Derby’s opening three matches of the season but was unavailable for Saturday’s disappointing 3-0 defeat against Swansea City.

Morris’ absence added to Eustace’s selection problems, with Matt Clarke, Derry Murkin and Patrick Agyemang already sidelined. The Derby boss was forced to hand Lars-Jorgen Salvesen his 10th Championship start, but the Norwegian was unable to make much of an impact as the Rams failed to register a single shot on target.

Eustace confirmed that Morris will now miss a number of matches as he recovers.

“He’s out with a calf problem which will probably be a couple of weeks,” Eustace said.

The Derby boss also provided an update on Lewis Travis, who was forced off late in the match after taking a knock to his leg.

“He took a kick to the leg, so we’ll just wait and see on that,” Eustace explained.

Eustace defends Derby team selection

Eustace also addressed questions surrounding his starting line-up after Derby looked considerably better following three half-time substitutions.

Sammie Szmodics, Rhian Brewster and Joe Ward were introduced for Ryan Hedges, Corey Blackett-Taylor and Max Johnston, and the changes briefly gave Derby more attacking threat.

However, Eustace explained that fitness concerns limited his options when deciding on his starting XI.

“You can say why did we drop off the pace for the last 20 minutes? Because the players who came on aren’t fit enough,” he said.

“I didn’t want to bring them on at half-time, they’re not fit. I have to try and pick the team that’s the fittest team.”

The Derby manager admitted that the situation is particularly difficult because several players are still working their way back to full fitness.

The Rams conceded twice at crucial moments during the opening half, leaving Eustace with little choice but to make changes at the interval.

“First half we conceded two goals at real bad times, which is a kick in the teeth,” he said.

Szmodics, meanwhile, had only trained once following a thigh problem and was never expected to play a significant number of minutes.

“Sammie, who’s trained one day after having a thigh strain, shouldn’t have been really on the pitch for more than 20 minutes today,” Eustace added.

“But we have to try and make something happen at half-time.”

Eustace also highlighted the fitness situation surrounding Brewster and Bilbija, who are both still building up their sharpness.

“Rhian is still getting up to fitness. Filip Bilbija, you can see, is not fit enough at the moment, he’s getting to grips with the league.”

With Morris now facing a spell on the sidelines and several other players unavailable or lacking match fitness, Eustace faces another difficult period as Derby attempt to recover from their heavy defeat to Swansea.