Tony Mowbray has ruled out a host of Blackburn Rovers players for their trip to Burton Albion.
The nature of Rovers' pre-season means there has been little information on the fitness of certain players. Since the opening game at Accrington Stanley, all matches have been behind closed doors or overseas.
Scott Wharton remains out with a thigh injury, as reported by Lancashire Telegraph, but all other issues and timescales are a bit of a mystery.
Matty Litherland, Dion De Neve and Mathias Jorgensen's problems seem to be the least severe. De Neve played against Blackpool last midweek, whilst the other two have been absent since Portugal.
Moussa Baradji will be out for around a month of action after hurting his hamstring at Bloomfield Road. Augustus Kargbo has missed the last three friendlies and it's unknown how serious his problem is.
Sidnei Tavares was due to feature at the Accu Stadium but didn't travel. Again, it's unknown as to why.
Mowbray isn't expecting many, if any back, but doesn't believe any of the injuries will take more than a month or so.
"I don't think any of them will be making it," Mowbray told RoversTV.
"I might be wrong there, but I think it's an ask for them, a test for them. Listen, I do think it's something we've all talked about the balance between making pre-season really easy and making sure nobody gets injured and getting them robust for a season.
"Yet a few have found that difficult and broken down and we can all question whether we are working too hard.
"I find that hard. I come from an era of football, though, where you'd go on 10-mile runs for the first three or four weeks of pre-season. Tet, here we are now, in modern-day football, we measure every metre we do.
"I don't think it's been too tough. I think a few of those injuries have been picked up in games and it's very difficult to control metreage and yardage of how far or how fast or how competitive a game might be.
"Injuries are part of it. I don't get overstressed about it. You'd like everybody fit and available and try and pick the best team to win the next game.
"But that's professional football. Players always get injured. There are no major injuries, really.
"Only (Lewis) Miller still around Christmas time, I think. But, it's a few weeks, a little twinge in a hamstring, a little slight tear in the thigh or whatever it might be. Three weeks, two weeks, four weeks and hopefully they'll all be back."
Mowbray again saw positives and negatives from Rovers' pre-season showing. He is hoping the consistency of the team will improve as time wears on.
"I think it's similar to the other pre-season friendlies," he assessed.
"There were some alright bits, we had some spells in the first half, 15 minutes here, 20 minutes there, where we looked like the team we want to be.
"Then we had a 10-minute spell where we were backs against the wall and suffering and making some bad decisions.
"So, I think it's consistency of the team, really. I think we have to keep hammering it home to them, really, of what's expected, what's required in the position they play. Hopefully the penny drops at some stage.
"I was OK with today because there was some pretty good stuff and then, as I said, stuff that we need to continue to work on."
Share