Having bypassed going out on loan by breaking in to the Rovers senior side at 18, Ryan Nyambe has viewed his time on international duty with Namibia as just that.

Nyambe made appearance number 120 of his Rovers career in the 2-2 draw with Brentford at the weekend and has blossomed in to one of the side’s most important players at right back.

The 22-year-old has been a regular in the side for the last three seasons, and like Lewis Travis, broke in to the first-team at Rovers without the need to go out on loan.

While some players feel that gaining experience in the lower league is imperative to pushing their case for senior involvement at Rovers, Nyambe was thrust straight in to the action and has developed his game in blue and white halves.

But his time with national team Namibia, having pledged his allegiance to the country of his birth last May, has clearly played a part in his maturity both on and off the field.

Nyambe played all three group games in last summer’s Africa Cup of Nations tournament and then in qualifying matches with Chad and Guinea in November.

When away with his national team, Nyambe, who regularly plays as a centre half, has to assume more responsibility with playing at the highest level of any of his team-mates.

And he said: “I was speaking the other day and I obviously I broke in to the team at a young age and didn’t get to go out on loan. Everyone is different, but I felt the experience of the national team was like a small loan spell.

“To gain a different experience, to see how other people adapt to football, how they live, it was like a loan spell to get my character up which helped me.”

The amount of travelling while away with his national team has concerned Rovers, and Nyambe said: “I have to take about three planes to get there, it can be two depending on how I travel. It can be a long day, and can take me nearly a day to get there, but I’ve been doing it for the last four years when I go home to visit my family so I’m kind of used to it. It’s not a problem to me.”

On deciding the time was right to play for Namibia, he added: “In the end it was an easy choice, because I want to play international football for my country. I wouldn’t say I gave up on my hopes of playing for England, I’d rather say I weighed up my options and decided to play for Namibia.”

Nyambe’s improvements have been a stand-out of Rovers’ season so far, nailing down the right back spot having lost it to Elliott Bennett for spells last season, and the start of this.

Hamstring injuries have blighted him at times, the athletic full back often guilty of pushing himself too hard.

“I try and give my all and work hard,” he added.

“I think I’m improving in a robust way, I’ve not been injured as much as I have been the last few seasons, so I think it’s coming.

“I’m learning to control myself in games so when I’m tired, even in training, try not to overload. I try to control what to do.

“Maturity, it gives me you more confidence to be able to tell the coaches that you’re feeling tired and maybe I don’t do the gym session today, or can I do extra.

“It gives you the confidence to be able to go up to the manager and tell him how you feel and it just helps.”

Manager Tony Mowbray marked three years in charge of Rovers at the weekend, with Nyambe believing his contribution to the club’s turnaround cannot be overlooked.

He said: “I think it’s a big turnaround, a major turnaround. He’s done a lot for the club.

“You could see when he came in that season he was different, we started playing well, everything has been different.

“We got relegated but levelled up, promoted again and this season I think we’ve done really great with the position we’re in and think we have a really good chance of getting promoted.

“We have to keep going.”