Lewis Travis ‘carries the qualities of a captain’, according to Tony Mowbray, a he looks set to lead the side for a second successive match.

Travis was handed the armband for the midweek defeat at Huddersfield Town in the absence of Darragh Lenihan, and he looks set to carry on those duties against Blackpool this weekend.

The 23-year-old made his 100th league appearance for Rovers last month and has been an ever-present in the side this season.

Despite the more experienced Daniel Ayala and Thomas Kaminski in the side, Mowbray opted for Travis as captain with Lenihan ruled out.

The manager has regularly praised Travis’ attitude, and battling qualities, and said those were reasons behind the decision.

“That was the mentality behind it, Travis is a young player that hopefully flourishes with the responsibility. Daniel Ayala doesn’t need an armband to lead on the pitch,” he said.

“He’s got a lot to say, he tries to impose his thoughts on the team.

“Travis has been here all the time since I’ve been here, playing in central midfield for the Under-23s when I first arrived and now he’s a regular in our first team.

“He carries the qualities of a captain I think, he wants to win every tackle and every game. It’s not a bad learning curve for him as a young guy to be given some responsibility.”

Meanwhile, the Rovers boss says he contemplated taking Joe Rothwell off at half-time in the defeat at Huddersfield Town to protect the midfielder.

Rothwell has been struggling with a muscle problem, and having not trained on Thursady, will try and get through tomorrow’s session in a bid to feature against former loan club Blackpool.

The 26-year-old had a hand in both of Rovers’ goals on Tuesday night, the first a fine solo run, but Mowbray feels his work off the ball is an area of his game that can improve.

He said: “We maybe should have brought Joe Rothwell off at half-time because he was struggling and yet he made that amazing run to assist Ben which we know he can do, and we’d encourage him to replicate more often.

“He has to work on his out of possession game if he’s going to play in a midfield two.

“I don’t expect him to become like Lewis but he has to find that balance between being brilliant on the ball and strong defensively.”