An excellent run of results, followed by injuries to key players and a subsequent dip in form, Rovers will hope history isn’t about to repeat itself.

Rovers won four games in a row last January, moving two points outside of the play-offs, but injuries derailed their play-off hopes as they won just one of their next 11 to end the 2018/19 campaign with 60 points and in 15th place.

Sixteen points from a possible 18 in November and December moved Rovers in to top six contention again, but they have failed to win any of their six matches and are nursing a growing injury list.

Mowbray isn’t about to embark on a hard luck story, but admits absences to key man have proven difficult to overcome.

Rovers had lost loanee Greg Cunningham for the season in October, while top scorer Bradley Dack and midfielder Corry Evans have now joined him on the long-term absentees list.

Ryan Nyambe should shake off a hamstring injury that forced him off in the draw with Preston last weekend which offers Mowbray some comfort as he looks to keep a settled back four as Rovers travel to Sheffield Wednesday.

“I’m not sure what you do about injuries to very key players unless you’ve got a very deep squad of high quality footballers,” Mowbray told the Lancashire Telegraph.

“I’m sure the numbers are out there published of where we are in the balance of the whole division in where we are with the budget for the playing staff.

“How far you can go with building a squad of 22 or 25 players on good salaries that when one gets injured another steps in? That’s why Man City, Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea, Tottenham, Manchester United finish in the top six of the Premier League every year.

“That’s because they have got the biggest budgets, the best squads, they deal with injuries the best. This is the world we live in.

“You get injuries, particularly when you’re asking them to play intense football, on the front foot, working extraordinarily hard.

“Ryan Nyambe only got 50 minutes at the intensity we’re asking them to play at.

“He wasn’t injured, he was just fatigued, his body didn’t deal with it. He’ll be asked to do the same again this weekend.”

Republic of Ireland international Cunningham impressed in his 10 Rovers appearances before suffering an anterior cruciate ligament injury.

The 28-year-old will now return to his parent club Cardiff City, and won’t feature again until the mid-part of the year, with Dack set to miss much of 2020.

Mowbray wouldn’t put a timescale on when Evans may be involved again, with the 29-year-old central midfielder set to undergo surgery on a fractured skull and eye socket.

That manager has never wanted to stockpile players during his time at Rovers, and failed to add to the squad last January, despite allowing Paul Downing to depart and seeing Kasey Palmer return to his parent club.

No new faces have arrived so far this month, with Mowbray admitting opportunities for the club’s young prospects could follow in a bid to plug the gaps in the squad.

“I think Greg Cunningham is someone that people forget about, he started the season really well for us,” the manager added.

“He was a really important footballer who picked the right pass, gave us balance on that side of the pitch.

“I’ve said there’s no good managers moaning about injuries. People will realise we’ve had injuries but you try and build a deeper squad as you can.

“I’ve always tried to be player centric, I care about my players so I don’t really want 30 players and I have to almost bin 15 or 16 of them.

“But at the same time when injuries come you need quality replacing quality. Or you have young players, Rankin-Costello, Buckley, who will be given an opportunity to get in the team and try and progress and see if they can make careers.”