Tony Mowbray felt Darragh Lenihan was a big miss in Rovers’ defeat at Huddersfield Town and the manager expects the captain to miss the weekend trip to Blackpool.

Rovers shipped three goals in defeat at the John Smith’s Stadium as they slipped to a first away defeat of the season.

Hayden Carter deputised for Lenihan, while Rovers were forced into another defensive change midway through the first half as Ryan Nyambe was forced off with concussion.

There was a further injury blow in the second half when Joe Rothwell went down injured, the midfielder having played a key role in the first equaliser for Ben Brereton, with Mowbray revealing he is struggling with a glute problem.

Of Lenihan, he said: “He went for a scan yesterday, you send any player for a scan and they come back with some damage.

“It’s either one week, two weeks, five weeks, let’s wait and see.

“It’ll probably not be Saturday, but hopefully after the two weeks of the international break it will come at a good time for us to get him back.

“Joe was injured at half time really, but we needed him to try and keep going and hopefully we’ve not damaged him to miss Saturday.

“It’s hard work the Championship, a game every three days, and it’s tough to keep going.

“I can’t question their desire to have a go, but we’re disappointed with the goals we lost, it was very unlike us.

“Our captain is a big miss for us but the future of our central defence is out there and they’re learning on the job and they will have to learn pretty quick if they’re to help us win football matches.”

It was a young Rovers side that finished the game, with loanees Leighton Clarkson, Reda Khadra and Ian Poveda sent on for the closing stages, but to equalise twice, Mowbray felt there was no shortage of spirit shown.

He added: “Take Daniel Ayala and the goalkeeper out of that and you have a team of kids out of there really.

“I thought the spirit and fight they showed was good and will stand them in good stead and it’s what we’re trying to build this team on, that collective spirit and educate them and make them better footballers.

“We’re always disappointed to lose a football match but let’s give Huddersfield some credit, they’re pretty good in possession and can hurt most teams but I thought we fought pretty hard and came away without anything from a game that I think we deserved something more than we got.

“We’re left disappointed obviously, but the spirit of the team is there to see to fight back into the game.

“We’re hugely disappointed with the goals that we lost, Lenihan was a loss tonight, Nyambe coming off with concussion was a loss, so it was a hugely changed side.

“I’m happy with the spirit of the team, it’s very evident this season, they’re all very fighting really hard.

“It’s not our team to lose those types of goals, two simple balls into the box, yet it was a much changed defence.

“I’m not trying to apportion too much blame, the team fought really hard, scored some good goals and had some other good opportunities but they so did they.

“It was probably a good game for the neutral, just not for the managers of both teams.”