BLACKBURN Rovers manager Mark Hughes is sweating on the fitness of three key players in the build up to Sunday's game with Birmingham City.

Jonathan Stead, Paul Dickov and Barry Ferguson were all forced to withdraw from international duty in midweek due to injuries they sustained in the 1-1 draw at Manchester City.

But Hughes hopes the extra 24 hours Rovers have to prepare for the game will work in the injured trio's favour.

Stead pulled out of the England Under 21 squad that faced Spain on Tuesday due to an ankle problem, while Dickov and Ferguson missed Scotland's 4-1 friendly defeat at the hands of Sweden due to ankle and shin problems respectively.

However, the Rovers camp are quietly confident that all three will recover in time to face the Blues in what is a crucial game for both sides.

Rovers appear to have turned the corner after going three games unbeaten but now Hughes wants to start turning draws into wins.

The key to that lines in Rovers' form at Ewood, where the team have won just once all season.

But if they can break that spell on Sunday then Hughes believes it could be the spark that is needed to ignite Rovers' season.

"We need three points on the board. That would settle everyone down I think," said Hughes. "It makes a huge difference if you can convert draws into wins.

"A couple of wins and you can move up this league very quickly so it's important that our home form improves and we make it hard for opposition teams to come to Ewood.

"We are picking up points away from home. It's a long time since we did that but we've done that in two back-to-back games now, so that shows an improvement."

Those thoughts were also echoed by Dickov, who has been the hero for Rovers with two priceless equalisers in his last two appearances.

Confidence is slowly starting to build in the camp on the back of recent results and although the club are still in the bottom three, Dickov can see a brighter future ahead.

"If you look at the quality throughout the club and if you look at what the manager and the coaching staff are trying to do, I don't see this as a relegation battle," said the striker.

"I think that we have got to look at our recent performances and just take the positives out of them and if we keep going in the right direction, we will be fine.

"There are enough good players here for us not to get dragged into it.

"We know we are near the bottom of the Premier League but we know we have a good team with a lot of talented players, the manager has got us working hard and a few wins will push us back up towards the middle of the table.

"The signs are there that what we are doing on the training pitch is slowly but surely turning into what we are doing over 90 minutes on a Saturday."