Leighton Clarkson will be involved in Rovers’ matchday squad at Nottingham Forest and Tony Mowbray believes the midfielder will bring technical quality to the club.

Clarkson signed on a season-long loan deal from Liverpool on Monday but has trained twice with the squad and will be involved on the bench for tomorrow’s trip to Nottingham Forest.

The teenager is the first signing of the summer and will help reinforce the midfield options that have been depleted since the departures of Corry Evans, Lewis Holtby, Stewart Downing and Tom Trybull.

Having been part of Liverpool’s pre-season plans, the move has been a while in the waiting, but Mowbray was delighted to get it over the line.

He said: “In my mind it’s been rolling on a while, we’ve had to try and line other things up before we pushed the button on Leighton. He’s a lovely football player, he’s very local and it’s something he’ll have really wanted to do and we were very aware of that.

“It was just about getting the right timing. We’ve been trying to do lots of things behind the scenes and line them all up and I think this was the right time.

“Ultimately, we’ll see what impact he makes, he’s a continuity player who plays forward and picks the right pass and he has to come in, work hard on the training ground and get in the team and when his opportunity comes he has to show me that he deserves to be playing week in, week out.

“We need reinforcements, Leighton is the first one and hopefully the first of quite a few over the next couple of weeks.

“The more you watch his clips of him playing, the more you think ‘wow’, what a talent.

“He’s a great passer of the ball, sees short and long passes and fights his weight.

“If he can stamp his personality and authority on our team then that will be great for us."

A boyhood Rovers fan, Clarkson’s knowledge of the squad has enabled him to settle in quickly and Mowbray says he could be used from the bench at The City Ground should the game require his specific qualities.

Clarkson’s preferred role is as a creative midfielder operating in front of the back four, but he has played further forward during his time with the Liverpool Academy sides.

“He has said that he’s watched a lot of our games and that’s a positive that he understands the team, he knows the players, he’s fitted straight in to be honest,” the manager added.

“He’s a nice lad, a nice kid, he’s been around senior players and trained with Liverpool’s first-team for quite a while now and he just has to adjust to the type of training we do and the fact we’ll be playing two games a week.

“We’re looking forward to getting him really wrapped up in the football club and see where his talent takes him and where it puts him in the pecking order of selection and let’s see how he does.”

Clarkson is the second signing from Liverpool in as many years, with Harvey Elliott having spent the season at Ewood Park last time out.

Asked if the relationship with the Reds was a positive for Rovers, Mowbray said: “First and foremost, young players need experience and the Championship seems the ideal place for young Premier League footballers to go and mix it and get stuck in to competitive men’s football, particularly when they’re as young as Leighton and Harvey, they’re boys really and at some stage they need to go and test themselves in the physical arena of playing every three days in the Championship.

“I think it makes sense to me. It makes sense geographically.

“He should fit straight in and let his football do the talking and I don’t think there’s much change to his life even though he’s got a much shorter journey to work every morning.”