Blackburn Rovers Handed Injury Boost Ahead of Luton Town Trip

Joe Rankin-Costello has trained ahead of Rovers’ trip to Luton Town and will be available for selection, Valerien Ismael has confirmed.

The 25-year-old was forced off with an adductor injury against Sheffield Wednesday on Tuesday night, with Kristi Montgomery making his senior debut off the bench.

However, none of the other injured players will be ready to return to the squad against the Hatters at Kenilworth Road.

“(Joe) was back in training yesterday and today, so he will be available for the squad for the game tomorrow,” said Ismael.

“At least we’re not losing players,” he added. “Even when they get hit, they’re able to come back quickly, but we’re still missing a lot of players.”

Cauley Woodrow joins the long list of players absent for the weekend, with the striker unavailable to play against his parent club.

Rovers have had a rough spell with injuries. When asked if it is something they will look at in the summer, Ismael replied: “For sure, we always assess the situation with the medical staff.

“The pre-season will be massive. We will implement the change in the way to train, the way to play so it means that the players need to train differently.

“We will have time to prepare them and can avoid those situations because, at the end of the day, you’re just chasing, chasing all the time without that consistency (due to injuries).

“The good thing at the minute is it’s the third game now in a row where we have the same squad, we keep the players together so it helps to build some connection.

“If you have one or two changes, it’s OK to deal with but at least it’s not always the massive blow we’ve had after every game.”

Ismael admits it is hard to implement changes to training while the season is still ongoing and workloads are high from the busy fixture list.

“The way we want to play is the way to train,” the head coach explained. “If you want to be on the front foot, if you want to be higher on the pitch, to be more aggressive, then you have to train that way.

“The way to play before and now just the change, the difference, makes the players need to adapt.

“Sometimes it can happen that if you have more load, then if you’re not prepared, the injury can come.

“It is a cycle you have to cut at some point but the best way to cut it is to have a clear pre-season, a proper pre-season for all the players, six or seven weeks, and then we can really work on that.”