Rovers are paying just a fraction of Tom Trybull’s Norwich City wage – with the midfielder set to remain at Ewood Park for the remainder of the season.

Trybull started his 11th Rovers match in the FA Cup tie against Doncaster having been given permission to play in the competition by his parent club.

The 27-year-old was a deadline day arrival at Ewood Park in a boost to the midfield options following the injury to Lewis Travis, with the German having won promotion from the division in 2018/19.

However, he was told in the summer that he wouldn’t be part of the Canaries plans this season, not named in their 25-man squad submitted to the EFL, and made available for loan, despite still having two years left to run on his contract and starting 14 Premier League games last term.

That led to Rovers being able to sign Trybull on loan and they are paying just over 10 per cent of his £22,000 a week Carrow Road salary. That is also an indication of the level of spending of the side's relegated from the Premier League that Tony Mowbray has referenced when discussing the difficulties of securing permanent deals.

Rovers aren’t short of options in midfield, not least with the return to fitness of Travis, while a contract was agreed with Downing two weeks after Trybull’s arrival.

Jacob Davenport made his first Rovers start against Birmingham City, while Bradley Johnson will look to regain his spot in the holding midfield role should Rovers secure a central defender in this window.

Rovers too have Lewis Holtby, Joe Rothwell, and more attacking options in Bradley Dack and Harvey Elliott, to factor into the side in the second half of the season.

Moritz Leitner and Josip Drmic are two other Norwich players who were frozen out by the Championship leaders.

And Leitner told PA Sport of his situation: “Every club has the right to make individual plans with regard to the deployment of its players and to make appropriate decisions.”