Blackburn Rovers' preparations of the upcoming Championship campaign may have suffered a setback after boss Tony Mowbray revealed that Jacob Davenport will need to have a scan to determine the severity of the injury which he sustained in a behind-closed-doors friendly against Macclesfield.

After being forced off in the first-half of their clash with the Silkmen, Davenport didn't travel with the rest of the squad for the club's game against Mansfield Town on Wednesday evening.

Speaking to the club's official website about the latest on the midfielder's knock, Mowbray admitted: "I spoke to Jacob on the phone on the way here [to Mansfield] and he’s getting a scan this morning.

"I feel devastated for him to be honest.

“He was really upset today, really emotional and I had a long chat with him in the office a couple of days ago discussing his robustness, his game time.

"He asked why he wasn’t playing this evening [against Mansfield Town] and I told him it was because he only played 60 minutes throughout the whole of last season.

“He has to play as many games as he can and I felt the Mansfield game would be a more physical clash than Macclesfield, with all due respect to them.

“I felt Jacob should have played 90 minutes against Macclesfield, but he didn’t manage to do that after getting injured again."

The Verdict

When you consider that Davenport was forced to watch on from the sidelines for vast sways of the previous campaign due to two serious injuries, the club's supporters will be fearing the worst about this latest setback.

Impressive on his debut against Swansea City in May, the midfielder would have been aiming to establish himself as a regular starter for Blackburn over the next 10 months.

Yet with there now being a real prospect that he will be out of action for a considerable period of time, Davenport may fall further down the pecking order at Ewood Park with new arrival Bradley Johnson expected to rival Lewis Travis and Corry Evans for a place in Mowbray's midfield.

If the former Derby County ace doe indeed hit the ground running for Rovers, Davenport could be forced to consider his future just one year after joining the club from Manchester City as at this stage of his career, he needs to be playing week-in, week-out in order to have the best chance of maximising his potential.