ROY Hodgson is hopeful that Colin Hendry might win his battle for fitness and be ready to challenge for a return to the Blackburn Rovers side for Saturday's crunch clash with Chelsea at Ewood.

Hendry, who limped out of the match at Barnsley just over two weeks ago with knee ligament damage, lost his ever-present record in the Premiership this season by missing the victory over Everton.

But Hodgson believes the big Scot, who also had to stand down from Scotland's international against France in St Etienne last week, has a chance of making Saturday's third v fourth Premiership battle.

"Colin has made good progress. In fact, he made very rapid progress at first but that is the way it is with these injuries," said the Rovers boss.

"Now it is more gradual but I would be disappointed if he wasn't in with a chance of playing against Chelsea."

It will give Rovers a lift if Hendry is in there with a fighting chance of playing against a Chelsea side still competing for honours on four fronts.

The only other major injury to a senior player at the moment is Martin Dahlin's back problem.

Hodgson was also hoping he would be able to return to training soon.

The Swede has had injections and made a return trip to Germany to consult a specialist who has treated a similar injury he suffered before.

Chris Sutton won his first full England cap when he went on as a late substitute against Cameroon at Wembley on Saturday evening. And he might have marked his debut with a goal if Robbie Fowler had been more accurate with a straightforward cross to the Rovers striker.

Jeff Kenna also played on Saturday, when he was a member of the unlucky Republic of Ireland team who just missed out on qualifying for the World Cup finals through their 2-1 defeat in Belgium.

Elsewhere, Pierluigi Casiraghi, who Rovers confirmed last week was a transfer target for them, scored the only goal of the game for Italy against Russia to clinch their passage to France next summer.

Lazio, who said they did not want to release Casiraghi at the moment, have said they will keep Rovers informed if his situation changes.

Rovers' youngsters, beaten finalists in the last two years, take on Blackpool at Ewood tonight in the second round of the Lancashire FA Youth Cup (kick-off 7pm).

It's all pay at the turnstiles with one admission crage of £3.

The squad is: Stewart, Scates, Brown, Taylor, Topley, McAvoy, Dunn, Richards, Forsyth, Woodfield, Hamilton, Lomax, Baldachhino, Whittle, Connolly, Bingham.

Rovers A team won 3-1 at Marine with Paddy Connolly scoring twice and James Featherstone the other. The B team were 3-0 winners over Stockport at Brockhall with Gary Hamilton, Craig Woodfield and David Dunn the scorers.

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