Blackburn Rovers midfielder John Buckley is facing a lengthy spell on the sidelines after undergoing shoulder surgery.

The 24-year-old is currently on loan at Sheffield Wednesday and was forced off in their 2-1 win over Queens Park Rangers on Saturday. It's been a difficult spell for Buckley, who has struggled to gain any momentum during his loan spell at Hillsborough.

Now it's been confirmed he will be out for a while after going under the knife, with Danny Rohl admitting 'it doesn't look good'.

"John will be out for the next weeks, that’s for sure. He had an operation today (Thursday), and it doesn’t look good," Rohl told The Sheffield Star.

"I called him yesterday in the evening and wished him well, and now we’ll do everything for him to have a quick recovery.

"When I saw the foul I saw immediately his shoulder - I had the same issue when I was younger. It didn’t look well and I was scared about it, and now we know what it is. But I believe we’ll do everything that we can for him to be back as soon as possible."

Rovers have a break clause in the loan deal which means they could recall Buckley in January. At the time of writing, no decision has been made and this injury setback could see him remain at Hillsborough for the remainder of the season.

“The first thing is to look at how the operation works, and then for sure we’ll speak about what is best for his recovery," Rohl added. "Then we can decide. 

"At the moment it’s just about crossing our fingers for him that everything goes well, and that’s important.

“It was not easy for him because he’d trained well in the week and we’d had a conversation before the game where I told him that he’d get his chance, that we’d need him later in the game. He had some good actions, then there was the foul, and this is hard.

"He’d waited for his moment, and he wanted to try and stay on, but I saw that it didn’t look good and the doctors also said so. It was not an easy decision because he wanted to play, and the Doc had to say no. But it was the right decision."