Tony Mowbray detailed the lengths in which the club have had to go in order for Ben Brereton to feature against Coventry City 36 hours after scoring in Chile’s win over Venezuela.

Brereton was able to play following changes to quarantine rules, but Mowbray had previously ruled out the prospect of the club’s top scorer featuring because of the logistics surrounding his return.

However, he was named on the bench against the Sky Blues, and replaced Sam Gallagher for the closing stages, going close to netting what would have been a fairytale winner.

Brereton was given permission by Rovers to play in all three games for La Roja during the break, scoring in wins against Paraguay and Venezuela, the latter not finishing until 3am UK time on Friday morning.

Detailing his journey back from South America, Mowbray said: “He played only 36 hours before, he spent 13 or 14 hours in the air, flying to Madrid and then to Manchester.

“We then had to rent him private accommodation, get him in private cars with security, it’s a big operation.

“We decided that’s what we were going to do and that will continue for the next 10 days.

“It will be a trek to get him to QPR but he almost came on and scored the winner and that fairytale story that Ben is living at the moment might have continued.

“What I know about him is that he’s worth the effort because he’s a great kid, he’s desperate to do well for the team, his team-mates, himself and the club and he deserves all the accolades he’s getting.”

Brereton is able to train and play matches during his period of quarantine, but cannot mix with his team-mates, or change in the same dressing room. 

Meanwhile, Rovers were without both Harry Pickering and Reda Khadra because of tonsillitis.

They are back in action at QPR tomorrow, and asked if they had a chance of featuring, the manager said: “I don’t know, it will depend on how the anti-biotics have kicked in. The doctor will tell me if they can train or not and it’ll depend how they feel.

“They’re getting assessed, but they were still in bed on the day of the game when we checked and they haven’t trained.”