BILLY McKinlay's season is over, after a specialist ordered the Blackburn Rovers midfield man to rest his troublesome groin injury.

But the good news for both McKinlay and striker Chris Sutton, who was also examined, is that neither player is expected to need surgery, at this stage, to solve the problems.

The two players have been told to have prolonged rest and treatment and Ewood boss Brian Kidd welcomed the verdict that more surgery was not envisaged.

"It's good for the players and for the club that the specialist does not see a need for an operation at this stage," he said.

"That was how our medical staff saw it last week and their opinion has been confirmed."

Nevertheless, Kidd, who was already resigned to losing Sutton, now knows he will now definitely have to plan without McKinlay for the remaining games as Rovers scrap for Premiership survival.

And that will still leave them very light in midfield.

The season has been something of a nightmare for McKinlay who - significantly - played most of his games during Rovers' best spell of the season, starting with Kidd's arrival at the beginning of December.

He has started only 14 Premiership games, mainly because of the injury and he had an operation in February to try to cure the problem. But he was also left out of the team at the beginning of the campaign, used mainly as a substitute by Roy Hodgson, and that prompted him to put in a written transfer request.

It was formally rejected by the board and chief executive John Williams confirmed today that the subject had not been raised again either formally or informally.

McKinlay, like a number of players, seems to see a brighter Ewood future since Kidd's arrival at the club. His commitment was not in doubt as he tried to make a comeback against Arsenal on Easter Tuesday but had to call it a day at the interval after suffering a recurrence of the injury problems.

The manager is also concerned about central defender Stephane Henchoz, yet another who has been playing despite a groin injury.

Henchoz had to be substituted at half time of Saturday's game at Southampton and he is having more treatment in an attempt to ensure he plays against Liverpool on Saturday.

But, again, it is a problem that will not simply go away and the player himself admitted that he may yet need surgery to put it right.

Rovers will hope he can manage to play in the last few games, as the Swiss international has been one of the outstanding players of the season. Tottenham's late goal spree at The Valley last night prompted a few cheers at Ewood, as it lifted Rovers out of the bottom three on goal diference from Charlton.

The records of the two clubs are almost identical with Rovers holding just a one-goal advantage at the moment.

They also have a game in hand of all their main rivals in the relegation struggle. But that, of course, is against championship favourites Manchester United at Ewood.

Saturday's game against Liverpool could well be a sellout. Rovers had only a couple of thousand seats left this morning. It is a category A game with prices £22-28 adults, £10 concessions where applicable.

Tickets also went on restricted sale today for the home game against Manchester United on Wednesday, May 12. That is also a category A match and seats were available to holders of a ticket stub from one of the home fixtures against Leeds, Wimbledon or Tottenham.

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