Sam Gallagher has signed a new contract at Rovers.

The Lancashire Telegraph revealed last month the 26-year-old was set to put pen-to-paper on a new deal through to 2024, with the club confirming the news this morning.

Gallagher was into the final 18 months of the four-year contract he signed when joining from Southampton in the summer of 2019 for £5m.

It is a positive start to the year for Rovers with contracts which is set to remain a hot topic.

The club have started discussions with goalkeeper Thomas Kaminski who is into the final six months of his deal, though the club do have a 12-month option in their favour.

Ryan Nyambe, Darragh Lenihan and Joe Rothwell are all out of contract in the summer, while the club have an option in the deal of Brereton which will ensure he is tied down until 2023, something Rovers want to extend.

Gallagher was signed a year after Brereton, returning to the club where he enjoyed a successful loan spell in 2016/17.

He had been a long-term target for Tony Mowbray and has since played 100 times, scoring 20 goals.

Five of those have come this season, with Gallagher now back in the squad after injury ruled him out for five matches.

Gallagher came through the ranks at Southampton before loan spells at MK Dons, Rovers and Birmingham City in successive seasons before leaving St Mary’s on a permanent deal in 2019.

And he has committed his future to Rovers with his latest two-and-a-half year deal, which includes a year option.

“To sign an extension with the club and to know that I’ll be here for a little while yet, it’s a really good feeling,” he said.

“I can see the direction that the club wants to go in, I want to be a part of it and to be here for as long as I can.

“You want to know that the club wants to do the right things and move in the right direction, and that’s what we’ve done so far this season. We have ambition here and that’s important.

“We can be fighting at the top of the division and be battling for promotion, we’ve shown that. Now we’ve had a taste of it, it’s sparked everyone a little bit more.

“I’m hungry to get back to the Premier League, having had a taste of it with Southampton. The main objective of me moving here was to help the club get into the Premier League. I knew I was joining a club that were and are ambitious to get back to the Premier League and back to where it should be.

“Now it’s within our grasp, we can see that it’s an achievable goal and we’re all ready for it. Seeing the opportunity, we don’t want it to go to waste.”