Rovers' troubles infront of goal won’t see Bradley Dack rushed back to action with Tony Mowbray continuing to take a cautious approach with the attacker.

Mowbray says Dack will have to play at least one full game before he’s considered for first-team selection despite scoring in his last two Under-23s outings.

He came through 75 minutes in Monday’s Premier League Cup defeat to QPR and scored the opening goal, having also netted against Brighton earlier this month, but is still striving to reach top fitness.

Having been out since March with a second ACL injury Mowbray is understandably cautious over Dack’s return, and played down talk of an imminent return for the 28-year-old despite Rovers going a fourth game without a goal.

While Dack feels ready to have an impact off the bench, Mowbray said: “As I said a couple of weeks ago I don’t want to put Bradley Dack’s future in doubt because we’re rushing to get a goalscorer on the pitch.

“I still see him carrying it a little bit, I need to see him flowing across the ground, I know he does the distance numbers pretty good but he has to show me some high intensity, that he can run over there and sprint to put a block in, as well as the brilliance he has.

“I don’t sit here thinking ‘a week or 10 days’ I’m thinking he needs to play a couple of 90 minutes and I have to watch him.”

Dack has now played three times for Mike Sheron’s side, with a fourth earmarked for Sunday when they travel to face Liverpool.

They also host West Ham United on February 28 which could give Dack chance to further build up his minutes, and Mowbray feels that will only be beneficial.

Dack hopes to still have an impact on Rovers’ 14 remaining matches, with an impact role off the bench most likely for the attacker who spent a year on the sidelines after his first injury in December 2019.

He scored three times in 17 appearances in 2021, but Mowbray will put the best interests of the player above those of the team, despite their fight for promotion and a run which has seen them score just twice in 2022.

While acknowledging that Dack can still have a role to play, Mowbray added: “I’ve had these discussions with Bradley. He thinks he can do that but I don’t want to risk him.

“He’s missed a lot of football over the last two years and I think we have to make sure he plays enough protective football, where he plays 90 minutes and then another 90 minutes.

“I’ve told him not to rush, this is your career, you have six or seven years playing at the top level hopefully and for the sake of a few weeks, a month, let’s get everything right.

“That’s what I think, I think about the human being not Blackburn Rovers needing Bradley Dack because we’ve got other players.

“I don’t want, unless we feel as a staff, and Bradley is included in those conversations, that he’s ready and we’re not putting him at risk, then I think that’s the right thing to do.”