Tony Mowbray welcomed his players back to pre-season as they headed to the Austrian hills for a week long training camp.

Twenty-one players in all, including new signing Joe Rothwell, made the trip to the Oberwart district of Austria where the players are based.

There are no plans to play a game, with the trip aimed at building fitness ahead of the first pre-season friendly at Hibs on July 8.

Mowbray took his players on a similar trip to Salzburg last summer, believing it to be key in building fitness levels and the close bonds which proved key to their promotion bid.

Explaining the trip, the Rovers boss said: “I think there aren’t going to be too many new faces going but it’s important to get the players back together again.

“They’ve had six or seven weeks off and it’s important to get back in the routine and back to the good habits.

“It’s important to do it away from the training ground. You’re at your training ground for a long, long time throughout a season, the 10 months.

“So to have a week away in a different environment, different grass and just to get a different feel, it’s important.

“We’ll be setting the seeds, setting the standards, assess the fitness levels and get to work with them really. It’s always good in the first week to go away.

“We will spend 24 hours a day together. It’s not as if the boys will come in, train, have their lunch and go home.

“We can train in the evenings if we need to and have meetings about tactics and formations. It’s hugely beneficial.”