Rovers boss Tony Mowbray has revealed he has spoken to Scottish counterpart Alex McLeish about managing Charlie Mulgrew through the Tartan Army’s friendly double-header.

Mulgrew is in McLeish’s first Scotland squad for Friday’s home game with Costa Rica and next week’s trip to Hungary.

The latter takes place just 48 hours before Rovers’ crunch clash at home to Bradford City in League One which has been moved to Thursday night for television coverage.

That means the 32-year-old could potentially play 90 minutes for Scotland two days before the Bantams clash, placing his availability for his club fixture in some doubt.

But Mowbray told the Lancashire Telegraph that he had made McLeish aware of his and Mulgrew’s club commitments, and is hopeful of a favourable outcome.

“When that squad was announced and those fixtures were out that was the first call I made,” said the Rovers boss.

“The management team at Scotland know my thoughts but he (McLeish) is in a new job, it is his first squad and he has got two big games.

“I had seen some other managers who had complained about Good Friday fixtures and I was just making Alex aware really that we play Thursday live on Sky never mind Friday.

“But I wasn’t making any demands, I was just making him aware of the situation.”

Mowbray is hopeful that McLeish will rotate his Scotland squad given it is his first game back in charge of his country and the 59-year-old will want to cast an eye over his available options.

Mowbray added: “He has got two games, he has a big squad of players, he potentially will want to look at everybody and run the eye over everybody and, without picking his team for him, I was trying to make him aware of when our fixture was and how important Mulgrew is to us.”

Mulgrew has been a key man in Rovers’ rise to the top of the League One table, making 38 appearances and scoring 12 goals.

And Rovers fans will be keeping their fingers crossed that the Scotland man reports back at Brockhall fully fit given that he returned from international duty with a foot injury picked up in the World Cup qualifying win over Malta in September and subsequently missed Rovers’ 3-0 win over Rochdale.

The former Celtic man has won 31 caps for his country and is one of five Rovers players away with their countries, meaning Saturday’s clash with Doncaster Rovers has been called off and rearranged for Tuesday, April 24.

Jayson Leutwiler is in the Canada squad for a friendly with New Zealand while Corry Evans is away with Northern Ireland for a clash with South Korea. Darragh Lenihan and Derrick Williams have both been retained by Republic of Ireland boss Martin O’Neill ahead of a friendly with Turkey.

Neither have been capped at senior level and Mowbray is pleased to see his stars earning international recognition.

On his quintet he said: “It also shows that the club have supported us and that we have got players of that level. Charlie hasn’t just emerged into an international footballer, he has been around the Scotland scene for a while now as has Corry Evans with Northern Ireland.

“Lenihan has come back in in the last four or five games and has been a man mountain. Derrick has been a level of consistency all season and deserves that recognition. They have to keep going.”