Tony Mowbray feels a sense of frustration at the unavailability issues Rovers have had to contend with in their opening eight fixtures.

Aynsley Pears became the 26th player to feature this season, the most in the division, and only one fewer than they used in the entirety of last season.

Rovers were forced to withdraw Joe Rothwell from the starting line-up because of a back problem, while Bradley Johnson and Amari’i Bell have both been displaying Covid-19 symptoms.

The pair have undergone tests, missing their first matches of the season when absent for the 4-2 defeat against Reading, and look set to join the list of players who have self-isolated.

Rothwell had himself just returned from a period of self-isolation, which saw him away from the training ground for 10 days, but he had been in the original starting line-up, only to be withdrawn just hours from kick-off.

And Mowbray told the Lancashire Telegraph: “There’s no intention to play all these players, we’re trying to pick teams to win games, but it’s frustrating and you have to find the balance when people drop out.

“There’s three players that probably would have started but became unavailable across a 24-hour spell.

“You are throwing lads in who haven’t played a game for six, eight, 10 months and expecting them to perform at the level, it’s difficult for them.

“Ideally they’d have trained for a few weeks and built it up, watched how we function, but we’ve had to throw them straight in because of the situation we find ourselves in.”

The list of absentees was compounded by a groin injury to goalkeeper Kaminski, picked up in the win over Coventry, which handed Pears his debut in goal.

It is expected to be Pears in goal again for the trip to Swansea City this weekend, though Rovers will give Belgian Kaminski every chance to feature.

Mowbray said: “He’s tweaked his groin, let’s see how he responds to treatment. Basically, we’ll see how he feels.

“He’s got three days, it’s probably unlikely, but I’m not ruling him out.”