Lewis Holtby says he is ready for a new challenge after a ‘brutal’ two year stay with Rovers in the Championship.

Holtby is back in Germany working on his fitness amid the search for a new club as he weighs up his options foloowing his Ewood Park departure.

That was confirmed last month after 56 appearances and the 30-year-old then returned to his native Germany to be reunited with his wife and young daughter.

While Holtby enjoyed his time at Rovers, he says the coronavirus pandemic made travel and living arrangements difficult for his young family, with his next challenge most likely to be back in the top flight, or second tier, in Germany.

That was why there wasn't an offer of an extended stay, with Tony Mowbray revealing the decision to part ways Holtby was mutual, and made in advance of the end of the season.

“I would very much like to return to Germany, I am open to a lot. It has to be a club that wants me," Holtby explained.

“I’m on fire for a new adventure. I would like to attack again at a club that, like me, has a passion for football. I’m turning 31 and I don’t want to put my feet up, I am absolutely ready to take on a cool, new challenge. And I’m happy if it could work out at a great club.

“I can’t go anywhere that doesn’t fit. I am still far from full, I feel like doing a great football project.

“My goal is the first or second division.”

A period of quarantine after his return from Germany, as well as catching coronavirus, and a knee injury in February, meant for a disrupted season for Holtby who, like Rovers, had started it in good form.

However, he finished with only 29 appearances to his name, his sole goal coming in the Carabao Cup win over Doncaster in August, and failed to make the squad for three of the final four matches of the season as his future became clear that it would be away from Ewood Park.

Signing for Rovers in September 2019 meant a return to English football for the former German international who had previously spent time with Tottenham Hotspur and Fulham.

But he said the Championship schedule, and intensity, took some adjusting to.

“I’m with my family and that wasn’t the case last year,” Holtby said of returning to Germany.

“When a baby is born in a hot corona phase with curfews and flight bans, it is anything but easy. Now we are together and we totally enjoy it.

“The experience I had in England was very instructive and it was a really nice time, but the Championship football in the past two years has been a bit more brutal.

“There are a lot more header duels and the intensity is completely different. We played almost every three days.

“So there was no way to concentrate on preparing for a game. German football is also better tactically and technically.”

Holtby hasn’t ruled out the prospect of a return to Schalke, the club where he started his career, following their relegation from Bundesliga, amid the financial issues the club has encountered.

His last club in Germany was Hamburg, leaving in 2019 after five years with the club, including one season in the second tier after their relegation in 2017/18.

With Hamburg suffering financial difficulties, and set for a third successive season in the third tier, the midfielder has been portrayed ‘as a greedy, money vulture’ and said to be symptomatic of the financial issues the club faced.

Holtby hit back on the accusations in an interview conducted with German outlet Sport1 following the accusations.

“What was paid for salaries at HSV back then and how we played there as a team was out of proportion to each other,” Holtby explained. 

“Other players also earn a lot of money, but at HSV the same guys like me were attacked. I was often portrayed as a greedy money vulture. That was unfair.

“HSV is still very close to my heart. That's why I went to the second division with the club because I wanted to make up for this dilemma. If I had been that moneyed vulture, I could have moved elsewhere and signed a fat contract.”