Tony Mowbray says Rovers will continue to plan for a resumption of the season on April 3 until they are told otherwise.

All Premier League and EFL matches, as well as the top two tiers of the women’s game, have been postponed until April 3 at the earliest, steps taken due to the ongoing threat of the COVID-19 virus. 

The Rovers players and staff met with the club doctor on Friday, though none of the current first-team squad are currently in self-isolation and training went ahead as normal.

Rovers have nine more senior matches to play, and while the club will continue to follow advice and guidance of the Government and health officials, Mowbray expects training to continue in the meantime.

He said: “If the season is to start again on April 3 then we need to be training at some stage, we can’t think we can just turn up and be ready to play a football match. It will be ongoing, I’ll be in contact with the team and letting them know whether we’re in training or need a couple of days off.”

The EFL are set to hold a board meeting next week with an update set to follow on the next steps.

Three first team matches in all have been postponed, while the Under-23s, Under-18s and Ladies team matches are also off until at least April 3, when Rovers are due to host Leeds United.

Rovers trained as normal on Friday, but a lighter session than previously planned after hearing of the postponement of Saturday’s scheduled match with Bristol City.

The players were given the weekend off, but could return to training on Monday, as Rovers put plans in place for the coming weeks.

“The club doctor had an in-house meeting with everyone in the building, just giving guidelines and how he sees the situation. Then I sent them off for the weekend. I’ll be in touch with everyone on Monday letting them know what the next plan of action is,” Mowbray added.

“Everyone who has symptoms needs to inform the club, the doctor or myself, and we will deal with each independent case as it comes along and we will abide by what the EFL tell us as we move forward, because yesterday’s news was different from today and tomorrow’s news might be different again.

“We’re living day to do at the moment. But we do have to plan for the next football match in early April.

“The team, if there’s no-one showing symptoms, I think we should be coming in training, staying fit and getting ready for the next game, but there’s a balance in that. Anyone with symptoms needs to self-isolate away from the team.”

Rovers have also suspended player appearances, commercial activities, training ground visits and fan meetings, as well as its Academy programme and Community Trust initiatives that were scheduled for Ewood Park.

The decision to postpone matches was made at 11am on Friday, by which point Rovers were already beginning training for the visit of Bristol City.

Mowbray explained: “I found out at 11am. The players were warming up, training had started, but I was conscious of the announcement, so our secretary was watching for the announcement as we got on to the preparations for before Bristol City then it broke that all EFL games would be postponed until April 3.

“We changed our training plan, we didn’t have to prepare for Bristol City, we got them playing football and pretty light-hearted and then got them in.”