Tony Mowbray says the number of players unavailable to Rovers could open the door to the new signings featuring sooner than they otherwise might.

Mowbray is known to prefer giving players chance to integrate in to the squad before involving them in matches, but with several players currently unavailable, and a hectic Championship fixture list, those opportunities could come as early as tomorrow night’s game with Watford.

All four deadline day signings will make the trip to Watford, but the quartet have all been short of football of late. But Mowbray says there is no doubting their quality which was obvious from the early training sessions which he says has been of a higher intensity because of what the new boys have added.

“New players of high quality lift the whole training group, your own talented players want to show what they’ve got and vice versa,” he explained.

“Training was really sharp, really encouraging, but it’s not as simply as two days of training and shoving them straight in the starting line-up.

“Sometimes it’s beneficial to sit and watch the team and how it functions, sit in the team meetings and what we do.

“They need to learn how the principles of play, what we do in and out of possession, to just come in and go and play their own game isn’t fair on them.

“They need to get used to what we do. They’ll integrate in but it does take time.

“One or two might get game-time because of the low numbers and the bodies we’ve got out, they’re boosting the numbers which is important for us, but in an ideal world they’d sit on the periphery and see how the team functions and we’d integrate them in gradually.

“Let’s wait and see how the next week or so goes.”

Liverpool loanee Harvey Elliott is different to Rovers’ other deadline day signings in that he’s yet to start a league fixture in his career, or have any Championship experience.

Mowbray has discussed his likely game-time with his parent club, but added: “There’s every chance he’ll get his chance debut in this match.

“I had a long conference call with the staff at Liverpool and they think really highly of him.

“As I say to Premier League clubs when we try and take some of their players we have to respect the players we’ve got at this football club, the ones that are working really hard to try and help this club win games.

“When you catapult someone in from a Premier League club there’s no given right that they’re coming straight into your team, yet their talent probably warrants that.

“Harvey I can see how tight he is with the ball, his tight control, his vision, touch, it’s so much tighter than a lot of players.

“But football is about more than just talent. I have to make sure he has the right work ethic, the desire to what’s required for our team and I’m just developing a relationship with him at the moment.

“He seems very humble and we’re looking forward to the next few months and seeing how it goes.

“I’m confident he’ll fit in perfectly well. Sometimes when you bring new players in you have to give them time to settle in, have a look.”