Portsmouth’s hopes of landing Rovers defender Charlie Mulgrew have been derailed after the implementation of the League One salary cap, according to reports on the South Coast.

The EFL announced on Friday that all deals from that point forward would need to fall within the £2.5m salary cap ceiling voted through by League One clubs, meaning Pompey may now need to strike a loan agreement with Rovers if they are to bring in the 34-year-old given his current wages.

Mulgrew is in to the final year of his deal at Ewood Park, having signed an extension in November 2018, but has had a mixed time of things since.

Twelve months ago, he was loaned to Wigan Athletic where he was set to spend the whole of the 2019/20 campaign, but after 13 appearances, the Scot exercised a clause in the deal which allowed him to return to Rovers in January.

Having started for Rovers on the opening day of last season against Charlton, that ruled out the possibility of another move for Mulgrew, who made just one more appearance last season.

That came in the 2-0 defeat at Barnsley in June, appearing in five more matchday squads after the re-start, but wasn’t involved in any of the final three fixtures.

Rovers will target a central defender in the summer window, having seen Tosin Adarabioyo return to his parent club, Manchester City, and are expected to listen to offers for Mulgrew, with a wealth of options coming through the Academy ranks in that position.

The 34-year-old will be keen to get back playing, after a difficult 2020 so far, and regain his place back in the Scotland national team set-up.

Mulgrew has played 109 times for Rovers, scoring 27 times, including 14 during their promotion campaign in 2017/18 having been named captain, a role he held for two seasons.

Portsmouth already have one former Rovers defender on their books, after signing Paul Downing last summer, and had been rumoured to be considering a move for Richie Smallwood, but those links have since been played down.