MARTIN Dahlin is battling against the clock to be ready for the start of the new Premiership season on Saturday week and could miss out on Blackburn Rovers' final two warm-up matches, writes PETER WHITE.

It's another bitterly-disappointing injury blow for Rovers boss Roy Hodgson who has already seen two of his most senior players, Tim Flowers and Colin Hendry, undergo pre-season surgery.

And, of course, he is now resigned to losing Graeme Le Saux, whose transfer request has been granted.

Hodgson is hoping that Swedish international striker Dahlin can help solve Rovers' goalscoring problem.

But the £2 million signing from Roma is struggling to shake off the calf muscle injury which kept him out of Saturday's game at West Bromwich Albion.

He is not expected to play against Aberdeen at Pittodrie tonight and could also be forced to sit out Sunday's trip to Sheffield United.

"It's worse than we first thought and we are battling to get him fit for the start of the season," said Hodgson before leaving for Aberdeen.

"He has been training hard but on his own, not with the rest of the squad.

"It's disappointing when players get injured but it could have been worse."

Dahlin has made only one appearance in a Rovers shirt so far, playing for almost an hour in the game against Hvidovre in Copenhagen.

And Hodgson admitted he felt he might have played him a little too long, after such a hard week's training when Dahlin was trying to catch up with the rest of the squad. Meanwhile, another former Chelsea player, Ian Pearce is also likely to be left out at Aberdeen tonight, after suffering a slight hamstring strain at West Brom on Saturday, but Hodgson hopes to have Stephane Henchoz and Patrick Valery available after they too were substituted at the Hawthorns.

"Stephane Henchoz felt his ankle which has been operated on," said the manager.

"Basically, according to the experts, he shouldn't be playing football.

"They didn't expect him to be fit before the start of the season. As it is he's playing already.

"But I have made it clear to him that if he feels even the slightest twinge he has to come off and the same goes for the other players.

"Patrick Valery felt a slight tightening of the hamstring so we pulled him off and Ian Pearce was the same.

"It's because we had a very hard week physically.

"If you were playing a vital game on the Saturday you wouldn't have done the two sessions we did on Thursday and the one on Friday where I was taking a lot out of the players.

"Obviously, as we go into the season, we will be controlling our training sessions so that the players are not going into games tired as many did on Saturday.

"But that's how it should be in pre-season because it is August 9 which is in our minds not July 26 or 30."

Hodgson is again likely to switch players about this evening, but he needs Henchoz fit if possible because of the problems he has with his injured central defenders.

Marlon Broomes could get another chance to shine at senior level.

Aberdeen, who have done quite a bit of rebuilding, will be tough opposition.

They have re-signed Eoin Jess from Coventry for £600,000, taken Brian O'Neil from Celtic for £750,000, goalkeeper Jim Leighton on a free from Hibs and, among other captures, have also recruited ex-Rover Mike Newell.

The striker joined them on a cut-price fee of £150,000 from Birmingham and has played in three pre-season games so far without scoring.

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