Dominic Samuel is set to become the first of Rovers’ five released players to find a new club – with a stay in the Championship expected.

Samuel’s three-year stay at Ewood Park came to an end last month, despite featuring in seven consecutive matches after the re-start before being absent from the squad for the final two fixtures.

Championship new boys Rotherham United are understood to be closing in on a deal for the 26-year-old who was interesting League One side Blackpool last month.

Samuel battled back from more than a year out with a cruciate knee ligament injury to play 15 times for Rovers in 2019/20, scoring twice, and departed having scored 10 times in 59 appearances since a £500,000 switch from Reading in 2017.

Jayson Leutwiler, Sam Hart, Richie Smallwood and Danny Graham were all released alongside Samuel at the end of their deals, with the sixth out-of-contract player, Stewart Downing, remaining locked in talks with the club over an extended stay.

Samuel is set to join the Millers this week as Paul Warne prepares his squad for life back in the second tier after winning promotion last term.

“As always, very complicated, slower than I would like,” the Millers boss told the BBC of his recruitment plans.

“I’m hopeful to get a couple of bodies over the line in the next few days, we’re close with a few, so I’m looking to get another six or seven in, possibly. I’m hopeful of that.

“I still haven’t got my No.1 goalkeeper in, which is an issue, looking for more depth across the front line, in the middle, and at the back.

“That’s named virtually every position on the football pitch, so we’re trying to do it.

“We’re trying to make the right decisions. We have to be careful this summer to make sure we recruit players better than what we’ve got.

“I don’t need players to come in and compete, I need players to come in above the ones we’ve got, to push the ones we have here even further. That’s our intention.

“I won’t be rushed in to things but we’re looking to get our number one targets that for certain.”