Zak Gilsenan hasn’t featured for the first team since October but the youngster is certainly on John Eustace’s radar.

Gilsenan made three appearances in the Carabao Cup earlier this season and also came off the bench at Queens Park Rangers in the league.

The versatile midfielder has impressed for Mike Sheron’s Under-21 side more recently, bagging a brace against Sheffield United earlier this month.

Gilsenan has trained with the first team squad a couple of times since Eustace took charge at Ewood Park and the new head coach is aware of his talent.

“I have only seen him train twice but he has certainly caught my eye on the coaching staff’s eye,” said the Rovers boss.

“He is a really exciting young player and he’s in a rich vein of form at the moment, scoring goals for the under-23s. He is someone we are monitoring and we are really pleased to have him here.”

When asked if the youngster could return to the first-team picture soon, Eustace added: “He has trained with the first team since we have been here and again, it is about assessing the squad and seeing if there is room to bring young Zak in.

“But I am sure he will play a part at some point from now until the end of the season.”

Rovers are back at Ewood Park this afternoon as they take on an in-form Norwich side looking to close the gap to the top six.

Eustace is looking forward to being back in front of a home crowd following three successive games on the road.

“I think it is very important for this football club to go forward that the fans, the players and the club are connected together,” he explained.

“You can see from our three previous away games that the fans have been right behind the players and they played a big part in the last couple of results as well.

“The home fans were amazing during the Stoke game, they really played the 12th man and got us through some difficult moments.”