SCOTT Dann has admitted that injuries have hampered his attempts to find his best form during his first few months at Blackburn Rovers.

Dann joined Rovers for £7.7m from Birmingham City in August and had to shake off a calf injury before being ruled out for a month after rupturing a testicle while sliding in to score against West Bromwich Albion in December.

The 24-year-old played on for the final 20 minutes of that game with the injury and is now back in action once more, featuring in each of the last four matches.

But, having attracted interest from Arsenal and Liverpool on the back of his performances at Birmingham, he has been part of a Rovers defence that have been unable to keep a clean sheet so far this season.

Dann, though, is determined to find his best form in the final months of the campaign and believes he can avoid a second successive relegation.

“A few unfortunate injuries means it’s taking me longer to get back up to my level,” he said.

“It was an important game against West Brom and I overstretched and clashed with the goalkeeper Ben Foster.

“I was in severe pain and couldn’t run, but I was determined to carry on despite knowing that something was badly wrong.

“Our physio Dave Fevre is very experienced and he’s never seen an injury like it before.

“And it’s even more painful than it sounds. It was not a pretty sight.

“The injury was frustrating as I wanted to be playing every week and helping keep the team up.

“We’ve been down at the bottom but we honestly think we have the players to stay up.”

And Dann, who missed the final months of Birmingham’s relegation campaign last term after sustaining a serious hamstring injury, believes the Rovers supporters can play a big part in helping the club to stay up.

Fans have vented their anger at manager Steve Kean and owners Venky’s this season but Dann has been pleased with the support they have given the players in recent weeks.

“The fans have been protesting against the owners and the manager rather than the players,” he said.

“You just have to shut it out of your mind, but it hasn’t affected us as much as people think and in the last four or five weeks – especially since we won at Manchester United with a really young team – the fans have really been getting behind us.

“I hope they can do that until the end of the season and that we can stay up.”