Greg Cunningham has returned to parent club Cardiff City – with Rovers exercising a send back option in his loan deal.

Cunningham will miss the rest of the season having sustained an anterior cruciate ligament injury in Rovers’ defeat at QPR in October.

Cardiff had a recall option in the deal that they would likely have taken up had Cunningham been fit.

But with the Republic of Ireland international out for the rest of the season, it is Rovers who have taken the decision to cut short his loan.

The 28-year-old proved to be a popular figure during his short time at the club and has undergone his rehabilitation so far at Brockhall.

However, he has now returned to south Wales where he has 18 months left on his Cardiff contract following his £4m move from Preston North End in 2018.

“I think that’s a business situation, I would suggest. We all like Greg, he’s good around the building, all the players really bought in to his personality and character,” Mowbray said last week.

“But he’s not our footballer, he’s their footballer for the next 18 months.

“He’ll be going back to get his rehabilitation done back at his parent club

“That excess money can then be spent on a new signing coming in, the money that would have been spent on Greg sitting in a treatment room for the next six months.

“The contract states that he can be sent back in this window.”

Amari'i Bell has started seven times at left back in Cunningham's absence, one more than Stewart Downing, with Derrick Williams and Elliott Bennett having also filled in.

Bell is out of contract in the summer, as is Sam Hart who is expected to leave on loan to a League One side in this window.