John Buckley won’t play again this season after sustaining a knee ligament injury.

Buckley is set to be sidelined for at least 10 weeks after scans revealed damage to his knee.

The midfielder picked up the injury in the 3-2 defeat at Stoke City following a collision with Will Smallbone.

Buckley was enjoying his best run in the side since the opening month, starting his fifth successive game, before injury struck.

Jon Dahl Tomasson revealed the news after the results from Buckley's scan were returned, leaving a hole in Rovers' central midfield options.

“Disappointing for John, he had a scan and he will be out for the rest of the season," Tomasson said.

“He had a very good 2023, I think he had developed in the way I wanted him to develop, in a different way of playing. So all the credit to John.

“It’s very disappointing for John that he will be out for the rest of the season.

“It’s a good opportunity for (Tyler) Morton to get game-time again, a young player who has done excellent for us, who needed a bit of rest as well because he’s not played that many games.

“He’s an extremely intelligent player and also a player who’s been in a very good Liverpool school.”

The injury is understood to be similar to the medial knee ligament problem sustained by Callum Brittain that kept him out for over two months.

Buckley came into the season expected to play a big part having flourished in 2021/22.

He signed a new five-year contract in September, but then found himself out of the squad for a spell.

A red card against Middlesbrough then sidelined him for three games, but he has enjoyed a return to the side, and to form, prior to his injury.

“First of all, I feel sorry for him, he doesn’t deserve that,” Tomasson added.

“He’s been fighting hard to get back in the team, to develop in a new way of playing and credit to John because I think he did that.

“It’s like a typical football career, if you look at it in a hard way, you can be playing a lot of games, then suddenly not playing, that’s football.

“Then you’re fighting to be one of the first XI on the teamsheet and I think he’s done a good job, helping the club and helping the team and then you get injured.

“It’s terrible for the boy in that way.

“It will probably be 10 or 12 weeks.”

Scott Wharton, who has been out for a month with a calf problem, is in contention to return after a spell on the sidelines.

Thomas Kaminski will return to full training on Thursday following six weeks out with a knee injury.

It means that Scott Wharton, Adam Wharton and Harry Leonard will likely be the trio competing to take Buckley's place in the squad for tomorrow night's game with Reading.