Rovers are close to finalising their pre-season plans which look set to include overseas friendlies and one at Ewood Park on the eve of the new campaign.

Plans are set to be finalised by the end of the month as Rovers gear up for the 2023/24 campaign.

Jon Dahl Tomasson outlined last summer how he would have done things differently had he been in charge earlier, and he will get that opportunity this time around.

That is expected to include back-to-back games over the weekends in July, and fewer games in midweek to afford Tomasson and his coaching staff more time to work with players during the week.

It will also give players the chance to have extended minutes, but on back-to-back days, so to manage the schedules easier.

In recent years, Covid restrictions permitting, Rovers have started their pre-season campaigns with an overseas trip, but no friendlies.

However, that is one of the things set to change this time around, with the players to start their preparations at Brockhall and play one local friendly before heading overseas.

Like during the World Cup break, when Rovers played Hearts and Ajax in friendlies during a week-long stay in Marbella, Tomasson and his players are expected to play two games during their time away from Brockhall.

The hope is those will be made available to supporters, before Rovers return to Brockhall to finish off their preparations and friendlies, and a first at Ewood since 2021.

The club have worked to line-up an opponent for the weekend before the Championship season which is set to begin on August 5.

On the pre-season plans, director of football Gregg Broughton said: “We have been working on that since Christmas, we’re 99 per cent done there.

“The only missing piece of the jigsaw is that we’re planning to be away on a pre-season training camp and one of the fixtures we’re looking to play out there just needs to be 100 per cent nailed down.

“Everything else is in place and hopefully we can be in a position later this month when we’re able to announce that to give supporters plenty of time to make their summer plans.”

Last summer, Rovers travelled to Portugal before returning to the UK where they kicked off their friendlies schedule with a game at Accrington Stanley, which was broken up into two games of 60 minutes.

They then headed north of the border, training at Stirling University, which included friendlies against Dundee and Celtic.

Rovers then closed off their preparations with away friendlies at Hartlepool United and Lincoln City.

Tomasson stressed that things would have been different had he planned the schedule himself.

As a result he often split his squad for matches which were scheduled three or four days apart.

On the differences this time around, Broughton said: “I think the biggest change is the way we’ve designed the fixture programme.

“You’ve seen how much emphasis Jon and the fitness team put on players getting playing time.

“A lot of the weekends in the summer we play back-to-back games, either Friday and Saturday or Saturday-Sunday, so he can allow those players he wants to get those minutes leading into the season.

“That’s the biggest shift the supporters will see from how it has worked previously.”

Rovers have played only three friendlies at Ewood since promotion to the Championship, two of which were in 2018 when they hosted both Liverpool and Everton.

They also welcomed Leeds United in 2021 and are hopeful of giving the players the opportunity to play at Ewood before the new campaign gets under way on the first weekend of August.