Blackburn Rovers manager Tony Mowbray has suggested that defenders Derrick Williams and Amari’i Bell should be fit enough to be in contention to face Bristol City next week.

Rovers took on Liverpool in a warm up match ahead of the resumption of the Championship campaign falling to a 6-0 defeat, but both Williams and Bell sat out that match and that left Mowbray’s side looking a little short of options with Joe Rankin-Costello having deputised at left-back.

The suspension to the season has given clubs the chance to regroup and try and get as many of their important players fully fit for the end of the season run in, and although Williams has suffered a knock-back with a calf injury and Bell has also picked up a knock, they will hope to be fit for the Bristol City match.

Quiz: How old are each of these 14 current Blackburn Rovers players?

Speaking to Lancashire Live, Mowbray revealed that Williams and Bell were left out of the side against Liverpool as a precaution, and that he is hoping that the pair should be available to take part in Rovers’ clash against play-off rivals Bristol City.

He said: “Derrick’s feeling his calf a little bit, albeit it’s not a major problem.

“Elsewhere, Amari’i took a knock in training and it wasn’t worth taking the risk with him.

“They’re the scenarios at the moment. The difficulty with these things now is that if a physio comes to you and says that little niggle is going to put a player out for two or three weeks, he’ll actually be missing five games.

“That’s going to be the issue as we move forward – we need to keep the players robust and strong both mentally and physically.

“Hopefully you get to a point where you end up playing through injuries if the team need it, as we try and give it the very best we can in these final nine games.”

The verdict

This is some encouraging news for Blackburn, who will be needing to have as may of their important players available as possible if they are to edge out the teams around them and claim one of the final positions in the play-offs.

Rovers have endured some injury setbacks throughout the campaign, with Mowbray’s side missing the influential presence of the likes of Bradley Dack and Lewis Holtby, but they have shown that they have a squad capable of handling injuries and still earning consistent results.

Both Williams and Bell are key components of their back line and it will be crucial that they are able to play a part in the final nine games, which starts with a potentially pivotal clash against rivals Bristol City in what could prove to give the winners a key advantage in the run in.