Eight players will be unavailable for Rovers’ return to Championship action with Tony Mowbray having to add several Academy prospects to his ranks to help fill out the squad.

Barring a late intervention Rovers will be without Ben Brereton after FIFA imposed a five-day sanction after the club’s refusal to allow the attacker to meet up with the Chile national team squad for their three World Cup qualifiers this month.

Had the 22-year-old travelled to meet up with La Roja squad for games against Brazil, Ecuador and Colombia then he would have been required to quarantine for 10 days upon his return to the UK.

By not travelling however, Chile contacted FIFA to impose sanctions on Rovers for not releasing the player for international duty. Under FIFA rules that would see Brereton forced to miss Rovers’ next two matches because of a five-day sanction, however he is free to continue training with Rovers.

“That’s what I’m planning on,” Mowbray said when asked he if he expected to be without his top scorer.

“I've been speaking to the club secretary and while we still haven't had any definitive confirmation, we're working off the premise that Ben will miss the next two games.

"I don't get dragged into it, I'm not a politician. As I said to the Chilean head of football, I'll just deal with the situation. If you want to complain to FIFA then you can do that.

"As a football coach, I'll pick him if I can and I won't if I can't. Is it fair? Somebody else will decide how fair it is. I pick the team and if he can't play, he can't play."

Brazil, Paraguay and Mexico joined Chile in asking FIFA to intervene after English clubs opted against releasing their players, though there has been resistance from the Premier League clubs which could still see them able to feature for their clubs this weekend.

Brereton has started all five Championship matches so far, scoring three goals, while Rovers will also be without Hayden Carter following his red card in the 1-1 draw with Middlesbrough last time out.

Harry Chapman was on the bench on that afternoon but has since been loaned to Burton Albion, meaning three players from the last matchday squad won’t be available.

There have been three new arrivals since, but only one is set to make the matchday squad tomorrow afternoon.

Reda Khadra’s move was delayed by injury, the Brighton winger eventually penning a season-long loan deal on deadline day and he is set to feature in the squad.

However, Tayo Edun, a permanent signing from Lincoln City, and Brighton defender Jan Paul van Hecke, are still working towards full fitness.

"Tayo's not available, no. He's not trained with the team yet. He's got a very slight medial ligament injury and the plan was that he will start training with the team on Monday. He'll probably miss Tuesday's game as well,” Mowbray revealed.

"Then we can integrate him back into our group.”

On Khadra, he added: "He has trained the last four days and yet he's way off our physical data from our own players.

“He has to build up and train with us on a regular basis so there's every chance he won't start this football match because he's nowhere near physically ready to last 90 minutes for our team.

"There's a fair chance he might make the bench. Then we'll see how the game goes and whether he gets on."

As a result, Ash Phillips, Lenni Cirino, Connor McBride and Jack Vale didn’t travel with the Under-23s for their game at Brighton tonight, while Jake Garrett is struggling with a minor hamstring concern.

One positive for Rovers is that Ryan Nyambe has trained all week and will return at right back after missing the last three matches with a hamstring concern.

Despite Joe Rankin-Costello having played a behind closed doors fixtures, as well as 45 minutes in an Under-23s outing, Mowbray says having been out since April after fracturing a metatarsal, he isn’t quite ready to return.

Bradley Johnson, who hasn’t been seen since the opening friendly at AFC Fylde, is set to resume full training on Monday.

“He's out there on the grass with the physios everyday. He looks pretty close to me as he's kicking balls, sprinting round poles and he seems to be getting up to speed. I anticipate it'll probably be Monday he will be back training with the group,” Mowbray added.

"Rankin-Costello has been back training with the group but he isn't going to be ready. He's not far away, though. The difficulty is the intensity of the training, especially when you've been out with a broken metatarsal for however many weeks.

"To come back and train with the team at the level you have to train at makes you susceptible to muscle injuries so it's a slower, gradual build back into our team structure really.”

Bradley Dack and Scott Wharton remain longer-term injury casualties.