CORRY Evans isn’t expected to return to action for Blackburn Rovers this season as he continues to be hampered by a long-standing groin problem.

Evans is back at Rovers after a week away with Northern Ireland but he didn’t feature in their World Cup qualifying win over Norway on Sunday.

The midfielder struggled to train with his international team-mates because of the groin injury which has seen him make just one substitute appearance in 2017.

Evans has featured just 19 of Rovers’ 38 Championship games this season, while he missed 16 games of the last campaign with the same injury.

And despite 45 minutes for the Under-23s in their 4-1 defeat to Middlesbrough on March 13, head coach Tony Mowbray revealed the midfielder isn’t expected to return to first-team action this season.

He said: “We've had some positive meetings, I got all the medical staff in, the doctors, the physios, the sports science department and the boy himself and we got a plan together hopefully that will get him ready, not for this season in my mind, as there’s only four or five weeks to go, but I wanted to put his mind at rest that he shouldn't be chasing next week or the week after next. 

“He needs to start his programme of intense work to make his body more robust and ready to play football week in week out. 

“Hopefully it was music to his ears that he can just get on with his programme and we agreed that he will work hard in the summer. 

“The main problem has been the strengthening and the core building that needs to be done over a period of months.

“I think at this moment there probably isn’t going to be one procedure, he may need a minor operation to help, I think that’s the case, and after the scans reading I think that’s what the decision was.

“But we have talked about a longer period of time about building his body up and making it more robust for the knocks and falls of a football match.”

The injury could see Evans spending time at Brockhall during the close season in a bid to be fit for the start of the 2017/18 season.

It would also likely rule him out of Northern Ireland’s next set of games in June when they host New Zealand in a friendly and travel to Azerbaijan in their next World Cup qualifier.

Mowbray added: “The boy himself suggested that he would come in and I think it's important for Corry Evans, rather than for me or the football club, that he gets himself back to this robust footballer who can play week in week out and his body can withstand some knocks. 

“Hopefully that's what we'll get to and by the time next season comes around the boy is ready and able to play week in week out.”