Tony Mowbray anticipates easing injury issues for Blackburn Rovers

Tony Mowbray expects Blackburn Rovers’ injury problems to finally ease this weekend – but admits their move for free agent Ryotaro Ito has almost certainly collapsed.

Rovers host Millwall on Saturday having gone four games without a win and with their squad stretched to breaking point in recent weeks. The situation was so acute on Tuesday that Mowbray started without a recognised striker in the 2-1 home defeat to Sheffield United, asking Jayden Fevrier to operate as a false nine.

Andri Gudjohnsen, who had shouldered the early-season burden up front with 418 minutes across the opening five matches, missed that game, while fellow forwards Mathias Jorgensen and Yuki Ohashi remain sidelined for “another few weeks”.

The mood is finally lifting.

Mowbray confirmed Gudjohnsen returned to training on Thursday and could be involved against Millwall, offering the manager a badly needed focal point in attack. Moussa Baradji is also edging closer and may make his first appearance of the season from the bench at Ewood Park.

“It’s starting to improve and starting to get better,” Mowbray told BBC Radio Lancashire, reflecting on a treatment room that has dictated his team sheets. “It would be nice to have some more senior players to try and change a game late on as opposed to hoping a young boy comes on and does something quite special.”

While the injury list shows signs of clearing, one long-running pursuit appears to be slipping away.

Rovers had been close to signing Japan midfielder Ryotaro Ito, who spent last season in Belgium, and the 28-year-old was at the club on Monday as talks progressed. Yet the deal has stalled and Mowbray now believes it is unlikely to happen.

“I’m not really sure what’s happened,” he said. “At this moment there’s nothing happening.

“I genuinely don’t know but, my experience would suggest to me that it’s not going to happen now.

“I don’t know why it didn’t happen. I asked for help a few weeks ago and the club are trying to put some players in the building to help us.”

On the pitch, the need for that help is written clearly in the table. Blackburn have taken just one point from their last four matches and sit four points – and 10 places – behind eighth-placed Millwall.

The performances, Mowbray argues, have not always matched the results. The league table, though, is unforgiving.

“We know we need to find a result, we can’t keep thinking the team is playing quite well but we’re getting beat again or drawing again,” he said.

“I think we are better than the results have suggested the last couple of games and deserved more from them, but the reality is you have to win matches and get points.”

With key forwards edging back and a demanding home crowd waiting, Saturday offers something simple and stark: a chance to turn improving fitness into hard, measurable points.