BRIAN Kidd was still suffering from last season's injury hangover as Blackburn Rovers flew from Manchester to Oslo today at the start of their Scandinavian trip, minus five seniors and one of their young new boys.

Long-term absentees Billy McKinlay and Nathan Blake, medium-term casualties Keith Gillespie and Jason McAteer and transfer-listed goalkeeper Tim Flowers were all left behind at Brockhall.

And teenage Scottish midfielder Burton O'Brien also misses the trip because of a niggling knee problem.

But that opens the doors for others and the Rovers boss has named a fair sprinkling of young talent in his 22-strong squad to take on IFK Gothenburg (Thursday, July 15), Lillestrom (Monday, July 19) and Fredrikstad (Wednesday, July 21).

The presence of players like David Dunn and Martin Taylor was expected - they are now established as members of the senior set-up.

But Kidd has also called up one of last season's youth squad, defender Leam Richardson, and is taking the other young Scot signed earlier this year from St Mirren, David McNamee.

While the absence of both McKinlay and Blake was anticipated, the loss of McAteer and Gillespie is a blow.

Gillespie is to have a scan on back and hamstring problems that have dogged him since the players reported back for pre-season training. And McAteer is still recovering from the nerve damage in his calf which forced him to miss the last three matches of the season. McAteer's versatility would have been useful but at least he seems to be making progress.

So too is Blake after an operation for compartment syndrome while Rovers hope to have McKinlay back in training shortly before the start of the Football League season.

Flowers, who is available for transfer, stays behind because of a hip injury.

Kidd said: "The reason he is not going is not because of the transfer situation. He has been struggling with the injury.

"We had to decide which players would benefit more from staying behind."

Jeff Kenna is travelling and will work with physio Dave Fevre at Rovers' Norwegian base, though his start to pre-season training has been delayed following his recovery from surgery.

"The injury situation is still hanging over us from last season," added Kidd.

"But we have what should be three good games lined up and it should be an indicator of how far we have come.

"We have quite a few youngsters in the squad but it's also good to see players like Garry Flitcroft and Christian Dailly back after being out for so long."

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