Sam Gallagher missed Rovers’ win over Brentford with a tight hamstring and will be assessed before the weekend trip to Stoke City.

The attacker had started 14 of Rovers’ opening 17 matches, but wasn’t included in the matchday 18 for the first time through injury.

Tony Mowbray had revealed ‘four or five’ players were carrying knocks going in to the game, but the 24-year-old was the one to miss out on the squad.

His absence allowed for Danny Graham to make just a fifth Championship start of the season, and first since the QPR defeat on October 4 when he was replaced at half-time.

Graham had injury troubles of his own during the international break, with the striker having struggled with an ankle problem.

Mowbray discussed Gallagher’s injury with the striker prior to the game before opting to leave him out, with Ben Brereton the man brought on to replace Graham in the closing stages for his first appearance since August following knee surgery.

“I felt his hamstring and I said ‘what’s the point of putting you on the bench if you are feeling your hamstring? You could come on and then your hamstring goes, let’s just rest it’,” the manager explained.

“Danny deserved to play. He didn’t train for 12 out of the 14 days in the international break. He had a damaged ankle, only trained Thursday and Friday before the Barnsley game so was relatively fresh.

“It wasn’t worth taking a risk.”

Rovers will assess the fitness of defender Derrick Williams having missed the last two matches with a calf problem.

Williams picked up the injury during his goalscoring appearance for the Republic of Ireland against New Zealand. 

Mowbray had initially ruled out Williams for up to three weeks, but he is expected to step-up his training tomorrow to push his claims to be involved at the bet365 Stadium.