Hayden Carter and Harry Pickering are fit and available for Blackburn Rovers for their trip to Stoke City but Niall Ennis is facing two weeks on the sidelines.

Jon Dahl Tomasson's squad was incredibly stretched before the international break but they now have more defensive options available for the Potteries.

Carter has missed the last two Championship games, one through suspension, with a hamstring injury. Pickering was unavailable for the defeat to Preston North End but both are expected to come back into the team this weekend.

Aynsley Pears, Joe Rankin-Costello, Dom Hyam, Sam Barnes, Sam Gallagher and Ryan Hedges remain long-term absentees with none particularly close to coming back whilst none of those away on international duty came back with new problems.

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"We have some good news that Hayden Carter and Harry Pickering are back available again," Tomasson said. "It's great to have them back, they have played a lot of games under me.

"I am extremely happy they are back. Before that, we were stretched and the break came at a good moment, an opportunity to recharge the batteries and train. Everyone is up to speed, we have played an internal game and everyone is ready to play against Stoke.

"It's great to see Andy Moran back after his first cap, he had the whole family there. Adam Wharton got his for England U20s, winning against Germany with ten men. Sigurdsson got two games, 60 and 90 minutes in his legs and that's extremely positive.

"We still have players out. Sam Gallagher is still a while away."

One disappointment is a new injury for Ennis, who came off on Tuesday against Preston North End in the Under-21s. The initial hope was that would be just precautionary.

However, he now faces two weeks on the sidelines with a hamstring injury that could keep him out of the next four Championship matches. It comes at a time where he'd managed to stay fit for a month and was trying to build his match sharpness.

"Niall got injured the other day for the 21s, it's a player who came into the building with a lot of physical issues," Tomasson said. "He is now injured again and I am disappointed for the boy.

"It's difficult for him to get up to speed when you're injured a lot. He can't show what he's capable of doing. We're disappointed that he will probably be out for a couple of weeks."

Ennis' absence means Semir Telalovic should be on the bench alongside Harry Leonard, assuming Tyrhys Dolan continues up front. Both forwards scored in that midweek win with the latter netting a hat-trick.