Tony Mowbray believes Lewis Travis is destined for a ‘big future’ but will make a decision on the 20-year-old’s immediate future later this month.

Travis started the Carabao Cup tie win at Carlisle United after coming off the bench in last weekend’s Championship draw with Millwall.

He was a stand-out performer for the Under-23s last season as well as making 10 first team appearances and was rewarded with a long-term deal.

Travis is keen to push on this season and would prefer to go out on loan should opportunities be hard to come by at Ewood this term.

But, having overtaken Peter Whittingham in the Rovers pecking order, a loan move would only be sanctioned if Rovers add to their midfield options before August 31.

There is understood to be loan interest in Travis, as there was last summer.

Mowbray told the Lancashire Telegraph last month that Travis, who appeared in all six of Rovers’ pre-season friendlies, was ‘close’ to his first-team thoughts.

And after the youngster featured at Carlisle United on Tuesday, Mowbray said: “I think with Travis it depends on what we do. He’s still a young player.

“We all like Travis at this club, he’s got a fantastic character and personality. Ultimately the decision on Trav will be made late in this window.

“If we sign some players who we feel would push him down the pecking order a little bit then what we do know is that he wants to play.

“He knocks on my door every day and wants to know what his future is. He wants to play, he feels he’s passed the Under-23s now and wants to play first-team football at whatever level it is on a Saturday with a crowd and three points at stake.

“He’s definitely got a big future here, whether it’s the here and now and we give him more opportunities to stake his regular first-team claim let’s wait and see what the next few weeks bring.

“If we do sign more midfield players then I think Trav will be banging my door down to go out on loan.”

Travis, who joined the club as a 16-year-old from Liverpool, initially came through as a right-back but has grown in to a central midfield role.

A red card in the win at Portsmouth in February saw him drop out of the first-team picture but a strong pre-season pushed forward his claims.

He gave the ball away in the lead up to Carlisle’s first goal on Saturday, and Mowbray admits those small details are what he needs to brush up on.

The boss added: “Their goal shows the level of concentration that’s needed at the level he’s being thrust in to.

“We know he’s a talented boy, we know he’s got the right personality to be a Blackburn Rovers first-team regular.

“I do also think he needs to go and make those mistakes somewhere else, learn and feel the venom of a manager he’s not too sure about at half-time for giving a sloppy goal away.

“He’s got great awareness but he thinks he’s passed it to one of our players but he’s passed it straight to them and doesn’t react for two or three seconds and they go forward and smash it in to the net.”