Blackburn Rovers were left frustrated as they fell to a narrow 1-0 defeat to promotion-chasing Fulham at Ewood Park on Saturday afternoon. 

Aleksandar Mitrovic's goal proved to be the difference between the two sides on the day, which leaves Tony Mowbray's side six points adrift of the play-off places.

The Blackburn boss was hit with a frustrating injury blow during the defeat to Scott Parker's men, as Joe Rankin-Costello was forced off after 72 minutes with a hamstring problem.

Mowbray has revealed in an interview with Blackburn's official website that the young midfielder will miss their next game against Hull City on Tuesday.

"Rankin-Costello is injured, he’s pulled his hamstring and will miss the game. It almost feels that there is a curse in that position at the moment.

"He has a hamstring injury and has gone for a scan today, so apart from Joe it’s a pretty similar squad. It happens. It’s just a bit frustrating moving forward because you do so much work about how a team functions."

Mowbray outlined his frustrations at the injury, which leaves Blackburn short of options in the number ten role, with Bradley Dack also being ruled out for the remainder of this year's campaign.

"All of a sudden, we’ve run out of players who can play in the ’10’ position. We have footballers and we need to try and utilise them to get a positive results.

"It’s a real frustration for Joe, who says that he did it quite early into the game at the weekend, inside the first 10 minutes."

The Blackburn boss wouldn't be drawn into making a decision on when Rankin-Costello would return to action, but revealed that it could be a tear in his hamstring, which could keep him out for a longer period of time.

"He got some treatment at half time and said he would be okay to continue. You have to trust the player at times.

"And now he’s going for a scan because he has a slight strain or tear at the bottom of his hamstring, although we’re not sure on the timescale of the injury at this moment in time."

Blackburn will be hoping that they can keep their play-off bid alive this season when they take on Hull City on Tuesday, which is a game they'll feel as though they can come away with three points from.

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The Verdict: 

This will be hugely frustrating for Mowbray and the Ewood Park faithful.

Rankin-Costello looked bright in his debut for Rovers against Fulham, and he wouldn't have wanted to be withdrawn early through injury on Saturday.

With Bradley Dack out for the remainder of this year's campaign, it would have been the perfect time for the youngster to showcase his talent in the first-team.

But if he is to be ruled out through injury with this hamstring problem, then you simply have to feel for the midfielder, who would have been keen to prove a point in senior football with the Lancashire-based club.

It's an irritating injury blow for Blackburn this season.