Tony Mowbray doesn’t expect Derrick Williams or Amari’i Bell to feature again this season.

The pair haven’t been involved in any of Rovers’ five Championship matches since the re-start, and didn’t appear in either of the two warm-up games, giving Mowbray a headache at left back.

That was solved for Tuesday night’s win at Cardiff City by Joe Rankin-Costello making himself available after three games out with a hamstring problem, while Elliott Bennett, forced off in the Leeds United defeat with a dead leg, came on in the second half after taking a pain-killing injection.

Mowbray will hope to have both available for the visit of West Bromwich Albion on Saturday, but will again be without regular left back options Williams and Bell.

Williams has been unavailable for the last 10 matches with a calf problem which has hampered him throughout the course of the season, including during international duty with the Republic of Ireland in November.

The 27-year-old has started 17 matches this season, but his only involvement in 2020 was a substitute appearance in the FA Cup defeat at Birmingham City in January.

Bell meanwhile, has started 19 matches, but missed the last five, and like Williams isn’t expected to play again this season.

“They’re going to be unavailable,” Mowbray said.

“Derrick has got a calf strain that has been re-occurring and he’s missed a lot of football over recent months.

“He’s been back on the grass but broke down again as he’s neared fitness.

“They’re with the physio department, as a manager I can go in and put pressure on them every day and say ‘where are you?’ but in the end you have to be careful you don’t turn them in to paranoid footballers really.

“The way I’ve generally gone about it is that I leave it to the medical department and I’ll see them when they’re fit.

“I see them on the grass doing their line running, then I see them going in and out of cones, and then I see them doing ball work, passing, and then it’s a gradual process back.

“Every now and then there’s a breakdown and then they have to go back to their line running.

“Where are they both? Amari’i I have seen him on the grass, kicking the ball off bounce boards, I’ve seen him passing it with the physios, doing box-to-box runs.

“How far away is he? He’s going to have sprint, jump, twist and turn and then he has to join in with the unopposed stuff. The season is finished in two weeks and he’s not at that stage.

“I sit here and think we won’t have a left back for the next two weeks, four games and that’s my mentality at the moment.

“Is it right to drive them really hard to make them feel ‘come on lads, we need you’ – ultimately they have to get themselves fit, the physios have to get them fit, they have to get on the grass.

“If it’s not in the next two weeks, which is highly unlikely given the length of time they’ve been out, they have to be ready for next season.”