The time estimate of Bradley Dack’s return to action looks set to be the beginning of 2022, Tony Mowbray has revealed.

Dack is back on the training pitches working with the physios, but is yet to resume full training having been out since March with a second ACL injury.

His first took him a year to recover from, but that included a couple of minor muscle injuries, with the hope always that Dack could potentially feature before the end of 2021.

That saw the 27-year- old named in Rovers’ 25-man squad, however, it now appears that it will be the New Year by the time that Dack is able to be in contention for a first-return.

Dack scored three times in his 17 appearances for Rovers between his return on Boxing Day 2020 and his second ACL injury against Brentford on March 12 for which he underwent surgery.

That was on the opposite knee to the one Dack injured in December 2019, with Dack since putting in the hard yards with the medical department in a bid to make his return as quickly as possible, working to an eight to 10 week timescale.

“He’s on the grass now, running, he’s around the training ground every day, running up and down the pitches every day with the physios,” Mowbray said of Dack’s comeback.

“He’s impacting on our team meetings, he watches the games, he has an opinion on the team and little aspects, as all the players have a right to give their opinion in the team meetings, Bradley is getting involved in that.

“It’s telling me that he’s feeling he can impact in the not too distant future.

“When I say that I think early New Year, December he might have his boots on and be joining in with the warm-ups but I wouldn’t think he would be impacting the team before the New Year.”

Dack signed a new contract upon his return to action in December 2020 through to 2023. He has played 131 times since his move from Gillingham in June 2017 for a fee of £750,000 and has scored 49 times.