Callum Brittain is delighted with his form at Blackburn Rovers and believes competition for places is healthy to raise standards.

The defender endured a stop-start debut season at Ewood Park with injuries hampering his start to the season. Brittain missed three months of action with a knee injury, sustained in the opening match after the World Cup break.

In that time, Joe Rankin-Costello emerged as one of the first names on the team sheet. Brittain had to be patient and bide his time for an opportunity.

But the suspension of Harry Pickering and then an injury to Rankin-Costello has opened the door again. Brittain has started the last three matches and really caught the eye on Saturday against Middlesbrough.

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His incisive runs and passing in the final third drew praise from Jon Dahl Tomasson, fans and the media. He's delighted to be playing and thinks competition for places helps the team as a whole.

"Like I have said before, it is healthy competition with Joe," Brittain told The Lancashire Telegraph. "If I can play well when I'm playing and he can play well that pushes each other.

"That is all over the pitch, not just for me and Joe. There are places up for grabs in midfield, strikers, wingers, it is all over the pitch. That helps increase performances and it is only healthy."

Brittain has shown himself to be a capable option at left-back too, playing there in the absence of Pickering last season and away at Watford last month. It's a position he had never really played before coming to Rovers but he has looked more than comfortable on the opposite flank.

That flexibility gives him more chance of playing when Tomasson needs to rotate his full-backs. Coming into his second season at Rovers, playing consistently and staying healthy is the main aim for him.

"I think there are a lot of players that can play in different positions," he said. "It helps the team and it helps the gaffer.

"It's all about the team, if we can keep performing and players are doing well then it helps everyone."

He added: "I had the summer to prepare and then come back into pre-season with the gaffer. I really like it here, I really really do.

"There are excellent people around the place, the team is fantastic. If I can play as much as possible and contribute then I am happy."

Brittain's relationship with Ryan Hedges and Lewis Travis on the right has been strong. With Sam Szmodics also drifting over to that channel, Middlesbrough couldn't cope with the wide overloads Rovers were creating.

That was demonstrated early on with great approach play that saw Brittain deliver a lovely cross for Tyrhys Dolan, who headed over. His run on the right side also created the space for Hedges to pick out Szmodics to fire in his second of the match from the edge of the box.

The free-flowing football on display is a result of hard work on the training ground. Rovers are now an image of their head coach's philosophies and Brittain feels the team is playing really well.

"You can see that we have jelled more, we have worked on the pitch," he said. "We are building connections on the pitch and you can see that coming together.

"The final third has been better, we can be more clinical but we are getting in the right areas. We're getting into spaces where we can create and that is very encouraging stuff.

"We work on it a lot, a lot in the final third. We weren't creating as much as we should but now in every game we have created a lot. We work on those things in training, everyone has taken into it."