BEN Marshall won’t be involved for Blackburn Rovers against Birmingham City and has been absent from training amid ongoing talks with Wolves over a move.

Boss Owen Coyle has given the want-away Marshall time off ahead of the Championship clash and revealed the situation with the 25-year-old will be reviewed after the weekend.

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Coyle insisted his decision had nothing to do with comments made by Marshall in the national press which made reference to the club’s off-field problems affecting performances on the pitch.

The Rovers chief confirmed there had been interest in Marshall from Wolves, managed by former Ewood manager Paul Lambert, and that talks between the two clubs over a potential deal are ongoing.

It is believed Rovers are holding out for a fee close to £2million for the former Leicester City man with Wolves currently short of that valuation.

And Coyle re-iterated his stance that he wanted to avoid a repeat of the situation Rovers had with defender Shane Duffy who completed a protracted transfer to Brighton at the end of the summer window.

“Ben Marshall will be missing this weekend, I have told him that he won’t be featuring in the game,” Coyle revealed.

“I have explained that I, and the club, aren’t prepared to go through what we had with the Shane Duffy scenario in respect of clubs being interested and players, whether it be subconsciously or not, being affected by it.

“I need a group that are committed and are totally focussed on beating Birmingham.

“Whether anything transpires between Wolves and Ben Marshall, only time will tell, but regardless of that, he won’t play on Saturday and we will review that on a weekly basis.”

Marshall, who is out of contract in the summer, gave an interview after the defeat to Ipswich last weekend in which he said “the whole way the club is being run is obviously not right at Blackburn and it is rubbing off on the pitch and with the fans”.

When asked about those comments, Coyle said they had no bearing on his decision to leave out Marshall, and added: “I don’t read too much in terms of what happens in the media, but what I do know is my decision was based on everything, and looking as a club what we need, and that is players who are totally committed to being here.

“Ben Marshall is not a bad lad, he turned down a very good offer from the football club of a new contract, which he is well within his rights to do, so that’s the nature of the game.

“We have to make sure that the ones that are playing are totally committed.

“Even if you’re subconsciously affected, something can happen like a mistake so we will go with a group that is fully committed, wearing their hearts on their sleeves and who want to be at Blackburn Rovers.”

Coyle added that Marshall hadn’t trained with his team-mates in the build-up to Saturday’s home game with Gianfranco Zola’s side, despite having started the last two matches.

He added: “Paul (Lambert) knows Ben from his time last year, I think they made an offer last week and the dialogue has continued from that, but whether that gets resolved or not, that doesn’t affect my thinking in terms of what we need to do moving forward.”

“I explained that it was in ours, and Ben’s, interest for him to have a few days to be with his family and clear his head. Then I will have a chat with him after the game and see where we are.

“For me the focus is on making sure the group, as they always are, are focussed on the job in hand.

“They are a good group of lads, very hardworking, and it’s important they know the message is that we’re all in this together, fully committed and focussed.”