Blackburn Rovers Injury Update: Mowbray Sees Improvement but Ito Deal Collapses

Tony Mowbray believes Blackburn Rovers are finally starting to see daylight on the injury front – but their move for free agent Ryotaro Ito has all but collapsed.

Rovers went into Tuesday night’s 2-1 home defeat to Sheffield United without a recognised striker, forced to use Jayden Fevrier as a false nine with Andri Gudjohnsen sidelined. The reshuffle underlined how stretched Mowbray’s squad has been in the opening weeks.

Gudjohnsen, who had already clocked 418 minutes across Blackburn’s first five matches, has carried the bulk of the attacking load with fellow forwards Mathias Jorgensen and Yuki Ohashi both ruled out for several more weeks. The strain has shown. So have the results.

There is at least some relief on the horizon.

Mowbray expects Gudjohnsen to be back in the frame for Saturday’s home clash with Millwall (15:00 BST) after the Iceland international returned to training on Thursday. Moussa Baradji is also edging closer and could make his first appearance of the season from the bench at Ewood Park if he comes through the final sessions.

“It’s starting to improve and starting to get better,” Mowbray told BBC Radio Lancashire, welcoming the sight of senior players filtering back into the group.

He did not hide how much he has missed that experience late in games.

“It would be nice to have some more senior players to try and change a game late on as opposed to hoping a young boy comes on and does something quite special.”

Ito deal stalls

While the treatment room slowly empties, the transfer door looks to have slammed shut on one target.

Rovers had been close to landing Japan midfielder Ryotaro Ito, who spent last season in Belgium. The 28-year-old was at the club on Monday and a deal appeared to be moving towards completion.

Then it stalled. And now it looks dead.

“I’m not really sure what’s happened,” Mowbray admitted. “At this moment there’s nothing happening.

“I genuinely don’t know but, my experience would suggest to me that it’s not going to happen now.

“I don’t know why it didn’t happen. I asked for help a few weeks ago and the club are trying to put some players in the building to help us.”

Form faltering, pressure rising

While the Ito pursuit fades, the league table offers its own blunt message.

Blackburn have taken just one point from their last four games and sit four points – and 10 places – behind eighth-placed Millwall. Performances have flickered; results have not followed.

“We know we need to find a result, we can’t keep thinking the team is playing quite well but we’re getting beat again or drawing again,” Mowbray said.

“I think we are better than the results have suggested the last couple of games and deserved more from them, but the reality is you have to win matches and get points.”

Millwall at Ewood now arrives as more than just another early-season fixture. With bodies returning but reinforcements unlikely, this feels like a moment where Blackburn must turn promise into points – or risk watching the season’s targets drift out of reach before autumn has even settled in.