Tony Mowbray was unable to put a timescale on the length of Darragh Lenihan’s expected absence with a knee injury picked up in training

The 25-year-old didn’t travel with the squad to Craven Cottage where Rovers were beaten 2-0 by Fulham.

With Ryan Nyambe also not involved, after suffering concussion in defeat in a game at Manchester United last week, summer signing Tosin Adarabioyo was brought in for his debut alongside Derrick Williams who is just back from a calf problem which saw him fail to feature in pre-season.

Charlie Mulgrew was allowed to leave on loan on Thursday, joining Wigan for the rest of the season, but Mowbray is happy with the options at his disposal.

“He has a knee injury,” Mowbray said of Lenihan.

“He picked up a knock in training, a bit of fluid on the back of his knee.

“We’ll wait and see if it’s settled down by Monday.

“Nyambe has concussion otherwise he would have been involved.

“That said, I think defensively we were pretty solid.

“Tosin and Derrick Williams dealt with their threat well, Elliott Bennett played well, Amari’i stuck to his task against one of the stand-out players in this league in Knockaert.

“Generally the game-plan worked well, it was just unfortunate we didn’t get any rewards from the hard work we put in.”

Adarabioyo and Williams hadn’t played any football in pre-season, but both came through 90 minutes as goals from Tom Cairney and Aleksandr Mitrovic consigned Rovers to a 2-0 defeat.

“That’s football,” Mowbray said of allowing Mulgrew to leave and Lenihan picking up an injury.

“It’s early season, I don’t think central defence was a problem.

“I thought they applied themselves well.

“They all need to develop relationships and when Lenihan gets himself fit and comes back then he will have to compete to get in the team.”

Mulgrew played 90 minutes on the opening day, captaining the side, but joined the Latics on deadline day.

Mowbray said that was to allow the 33-year-old to play more regular football than he would at Rovers once every is fit.

Asked if he could see the Scotland international playing for the club again, Mowbray said: “I don’t know, let’s wait and see.

“I think the central defenders who played showed they can get the job done.

“Charlie is away on loan, I think we should respect what he’s done for the team for the last two-and-a-half years and let him continue with his career at Wigan.

“Let’s wait and see when he comes back where our team is at that time.

“The way we want to play, the way we set the team up, I was happy with the central defenders we had out on the pitch.”

Matty Platt was brought as defensive cover, with Joe Grayson not travelling with the squad, while new signing Greg Cunningham wasn’t included in the matchday 18.

And Mowbray said the decision to go for Platt over Grayson was to give more balance to the side.

He added: “It was Matty for the balance of the team.

“I don’t like playing with two left-footed centre halves and if Tosin had gone off then I didn’t want to have to play a left-footer at right-sided centre half.

“That was all it was.

“I have belief in all of the young players.

“Grayson is a talented boy, Matty Platt has been good in pre-season, I’m not sure why the phone doesn’t ring more often for Matty Platt.

“He’s very dominant. And the balance of the team needed a right-sided centre half.”