Darragh Lenihan won’t be going away on international duty with the Republic of Ireland after missing Rovers’ 0-0 draw with Cardiff City.

A knee injury picked up in training ruled out the Rovers captain from the second home game of the season as Daniel Ayala came in for his debut alongside Derrick Williams.

That was a first appearance at first-team level for Ayala since New Year’s Day, having played just 60 minutes for the Under-23s since agreeing his free transfer move.

However, he helped Rovers keep a third consecutive clean sheet, but a third straight win proved beyond them as the Bluebirds held out for a point. That was despite them playing the final quarter with 10 men after Lee Tomlin was dismissed for a second yellow card.

Asked when Lenihan’s injury occurred, Mowbray said: “Yesterday in training, right at the end of training he opened up his knee when blocking a shot.

“He had a scan which only showed something minor but it wasn’t worth taking a chance.

“He won’t be going away with Republic of Ireland but will hopefully be back in a fortnight’s time, we’ll wait and see.”

Derrick Williams will spend time away with Ireland during their triple header this month, while Corry Evans, who missed his fourth successive game, is set to be part of the Northern Ireland squad.

Ayala enjoyed a solid debut in the heart of the Rovers defence, despite it being expected that he wouldn’t feature before the international break.

Mowbray said: “I don’t think he was ready, I think it was a bit fair to throw him on.

“He played an hour for the Under-23s on Monday, his first bit of football for a long time, since the New Year, because he had an injury.

“That’s his first outing for a long time and I think what he brings is experience, he’s very knowledgeable, uses his body, keeps it simple, has an opinion of where the line should be and where he should be.

“I tried to sign him for Middlesbrough a long time ago but I think he’ll be fine for us.

“He’s experienced, knows how to use his body, he’s just what we need, rather than a young centre half trying to do a man’s job.”

Cardiff reached the play-offs last season and are one of the division’s most experienced sides. Rovers blew away Wycombe and Derby in their last two matches, but a similar game was never expected this time around.

“They’re an experienced side, and they play pretty direct, so our front foot play that we’ve been trying to play there’s no effect of play because they don’t try and play out,” the manager said.

“They don’t have the ball in their half, they ask you to compete for second balls, compete for it, it was a difficult game and we knew that because we couldn’t play to our strength.

“The last 20 minutes we were asked to break down a packed defence and we didn’t find the answers.

“We got into lots of good positions but considering the way we’ve been scoring goals it’s frustration for us really.”