Tony Mowbray plans to sit down with Charlie Mulgrew when he returns from international duty as he weighs up whether to include the Rovers skipper in Thursday’s game with Bradford City.

Mulgrew is expected to start for his country in their friendly with Hungary in Budapest having captained Scotland in Friday’s defeat to Costa Rica.

Scotland Alex McLeish will name an experienced side for his second match in charge, with Mulgrew expected to line up in defence, just 48 hours before Rovers are back in league action.

“I already know the answer to the question whether he’s playing or not,” Mowbray told the Lancashire Telegraph.

“I need to talk to Charlie when he gets back.

“It’s a discussion with him but I’m very conscious of the fact he’s such a big player for us.

“Yet we play Thursday night and then Monday and he will have played Tuesday night potentially in Hungary and last Friday.

“He gets back at 2.30am to Edinburgh airport and has to get back to Blackburn and sleep at some stage.

“I will make all those calls when I sit down with him and discuss what is best.”

Rovers other internationals have returned to East Lancashire, though only Corry Evans featured for his country over the weekend.

The Northern Ireland international played an hour in the win over South Korea, while Darragh Lenihan, Derrick Williams and Jayson Leutwiler were unused substitutes for Republic of Ireland and Canada respectively.

But Mowbray says it does take time to bed players back in to Rovers’ methods after time away.

He added: “The rest were back earlier and have trained but you do need to shake them out of another training type.

“Northern Ireland are playing a more defensive game than we are playing, they will have more men behind the ball and won’t be pressing as high up the pitch.

“For Corry we need to make him aware of getting back used to our methods.

“I have had teams in the past when you lose six or seven players and then when they come back you have had some playing a high tempo game, others having men behind the ball and they don’t have to run but keep their shape.

“There are lots of different aspects and it’s important you have some days back with your team to reinforce those methods and strengths and weaknesses of your own team so they fall back in to how they play.”