BLACKBURN boss Graeme Souness was today counting the costs of victory over West Brom after Garry Flitcroft and Dwight Yorke became the latest victims of Rovers' injury curse.

Rovers soared to eighth in the Premiership table after a superb 2-0 win at the Hawthorns but their victory came at a price as Flitcroft and Yorke joined a growing list which means they will now miss Thursday night's vital UEFA Cup clash with CSKA Sofia in Bulgaria.

Flitcroft was the first to be sidelined after he damaged a joint in his shoulder as a result of a third minute challenge with stocky defender Darren Moore.

Then Yorke joined him on the sidelines in the 85th minute after he pulled up with a recurrence of the hamstring injury which had kept him out for the two weeks prior to his comeback last night.

Both players will now undergo scans in the next 24 hours to assess the full extent of the damage but the initial prognosis is they will miss the next two games at least, which is a major blow considering what's at stake in the next few days.

"It's a blow to lose both of them," said Souness.

"Dwight has suffered a recurrence of his hamstring and Garry has damaged the joint in his shoulder blade so I would imagine both of them will miss the next two games now.

"I spoke to Dwight after the game and I asked him if it was any worse than when he did it before and he said it's just about the same.

"So we'll have to be a bit more cautious with him this time and give him a bit more time to recover.

"He'll definitely miss the next two games but fortunately we've then got a break so, hopefully, he'll be ready to return after that.

"But, as people know, hamstrings are dodgy things.

"As for Garry, I know he'll be desperate to get back out on the pitch again as soon as he possibly can so he might have a slight chance for Sunday but we'll have to wait and see."

With Craig Short also likely to be sidelined for up to a week after tearing a calf muscle as we reported in our later editions last night, Flitcroft and Yorke's injuries could not have come at a worse time.

And that took the gloss off what was an otherwise excellent night for Souness and his players as they warmed up for Thursday's game in Bulgaria with a second successive victory.

Yorke and Damien Duff grabbed the all-important goals as Rovers stepped up a gear in the second half and Souness felt his side were full value for the three points on the night.

"We had to work hard for the result but we had a good night," said Souness.

"When you're the away team, you've got to weather the storm and West Brom are quite a direct, in your face type of team and I think the game panned out as we expected it to.

"If West Brom can keep the same kind of tempo as they displayed last night then they'll cause teams problems because it's not an easy place to go to.

"But I thought we defended well throughout the evening and the back four deserve great credit for the way they played."

Souness also explained his reasons for starting with Yorke and Andy Cole on the bench by adding: "Our thinking was we had Damien Duff coming back from rather a lengthy lay-off with a kicking muscle injury so, if we had started with Andy and Dwight as well, then we would have started with three people who hadn't played for a few weeks.

"So the idea was to give Andy and Dwight a good 45 minutes but unfortunately for Dwight he didn't last it."