BLACKBURN Rovers' record signing Kevin Davies will find out on Monday whether he can set out on the comeback trail.

Davies missed Rovers' clash with West Ham today, having previously been ruled out of the Premiership games against Everton and Chelsea as well as Blackburn's UEFA Cup second leg clash in France because of illness.

A serious throat infection forced the £7 million summer signing to spend a spell in hospital.

However he has now been discharged and a further medical bulletin at the start of next week will ascertain whether or not the England under-21 striker, who is yet to get off the mark for Rovers, can step up his rehabilitation.

Manager Roy Hodgson confirmed: "At the moment he's been sent home to recover from his illness and when he sees the specialist on Monday the specialist will make a new decision whether he has to continue to stay away or whether he is going to allowed to come back into training."

Rovers will be hoping that Davies gets the all-clear to resume training as the injury crisis which has hit the club's striking resources begins to loosen its grip.

Kevin Gallacher and Martin Dhalin were both passed fit yesterday and were set to face the Hammers at Ewood Park this afternoon.

And Chris Sutton could be fit for the game against Middlesbrough in a fortnight's time after resting his ankle injury.

However, Rovers aren't out of the woods yet with Frenchman Sebastien Perez requiring surgery on a knee problem.

The former Bastia player is currently in France where he will undergo an operation on Tuesday, performed by the surgeon who has previously treated him. Hodgson confirmed that the club has had to bow to the inevitable regarding what is a wear-and-tear type injury with some foreign bodies floating around on the outside of the player's left knee.

However, the forthcoming international fixtures and a one-match ban Perez will serve following his sending off against Chelsea will reduce his absence from Hodgson's plans.

The Rovers' boss added: "He's been battling through it as best he can because he's such an enthusiastic character.

"He loves to play and he's a very willing runner. He's even been running with a limp in order to play.

"We have tried for as long as we can to keep him going and avoid the operation but unfortunately at the end it was not possible and the operation was necessary. But I don't think it's a major operation.

"And it's one where he would have lost three weeks anyway with the two weeks international plus the suspension against Middlesbrough. So in actual fact we have limited the loss to maybe two or three weeks."

Every cloud has a silver lining, however, and the current spate of injuries has hastened the progress of some of Rovers' younger players.

"We have got some very good youngsters and we are quite satisfied on that front," said Hodgson.

"We have already got Damien Duff into the team which has been very important to us and with (Damien) Johnson, (David) Dunn and (Gareth) Taylor there are a few very interesting young players coming through.

"They are training with the first team and when they train with the first team they are going to get their chance through injury or whatever and it's up to them to take it.

"Damien Duff took his with both hands last year and Damien Johnson looks as though he might be going to do the same thing this year."

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