Blackburn Rovers’ gaffer Tony Mowbray has been previewing this weekend’s clash with Bristol Rovers and he’s revealed that Ryan Nyambe will continue to be missing for the tie.
The 20-year-old Academy graduate now has 56 starts to his name at the club and a further seven appearances from the bench. 34 of those showings have come in 2017/18 but he has missed the last five and a half games having picked up an injury that caused his substitution in the victory over Blackpool at the start of March.
Read a full team news update from the boss…https://t.co/91XoO5ZMKk
— Blackburn Rovers (@Rovers) April 12, 2018
The right-back is progressing well in his rehabilitation but he’s some way off a return.
Mowbray told the Official Site.
“We’re looking alright, looking positive. We didn’t pick any injuries up the other night despite having a slight concern initially about Elliott Bennett. Elliott is fine, as is Bradley. We’ve no issues on the injury front. Ryan is getting closer every day but he’s not close enough yet to feature in the team. He hasn’t joined in with any squad sessions and Ryan isn’t in my thoughts at the moment to be honest.”
With Bennett filling in at right back in recent matches, the 29-year-old took plenty of praise and Mowbray was pleased with the competition and versatility within the group.
Elliott could of course line up against brother Kyle on Saturday.
“Elliott has done well at right back. His athleticism gives him the capabilities to play anywhere really, whether that be right wing, attack, right back, central midfield. He has a football brain and has great energy. We identified early in the summer that Elliott was someone we needed to keep because of his energy and versatility. He gives us top class cover. You can build a squad with a few versatile footballers. It keeps the numbers in the squad tight having players like Elliott at the football club.”
Whilst it’s disappointing to see one of our own sidelined, although some fans clearly want to see Bennett back in midfield as we lack on an attacking front, few have a concern with him filling in as long as he continues to perform as he has done across the last few games.
Bennett has been excellent at RB anyway
— Tom Bury (@tombury89) April 12, 2018
Agreed, but would we not be better off with him in centre midfield instead of Evans?
— martin fowler (@martinbfowler) April 12, 2018
Evans has been playing well
— Tom Bury (@tombury89) April 12, 2018
Yeah I know but we just don’t seem to have the same desire to get forward as we did when Smallwood and Bennett were in there. For me Smallwood and Evans are too similar and neither offer enough going forward.
— martin fowler (@martinbfowler) April 12, 2018
