Rovers hit by Copps injury

The right-sided midfielder missed Tuesday's Carling Cup defeat at Plymouth after limping off with an ankle injury in Saturday's game against Bournemouth.

Coppinger has already been ruled out of Saturday's League One encounter at Swansea and physio John Dickens said last night that he feared he could be out for "two or three" weeks.

Said Dickens:"We know that Copps suffered ankle ligament damage on Saturday, but what we don't know at this moment in time is how bad it is.

"It is still quite sore and still quite swollen despite rest and treatment and we won't know the full extent of the injury until the swelling goes down and we can have a good look at it."

"I'd probably say that it will be two or three weeks, but sometimes when you get rid of the swelling the injury is worse than you think."

Better news for Rovers boss Sean O'Driscoll is that creative midfielder Brian Stock is ahead of schedule in his recovery from a close-season hernia operation.

Stock resumed full training on Tuesday and was also in yesterday.

"Stocky has done well to get to this stage as quickly as he has and providing that he doesn't suffer any reaction it is just a case of when the manager thinks that he is ready," said Dickens.

Skipper Graeme Lee, who was ordered to have six weeks' complete rest after suffering a neck injury in pre-season, is also on the comeback trail.

"Following a visit to his specialist on Tuesday, when he also had another scan, Graeme has been given permission to start light training with a view to progessing to full training over the next two to three weeks," said Dickens.

"It is obviously good news for Graeme and he is very upbeat, but we won't know if he has fully recovered until he starts to head a ball in a couple of weeks.

"He started with some light running today (Wednesday) and he'll build it up for the rest of the week and we'll progress him a bit more next week."

Centre-back Gordon Greer had a couple of stitches in an eye wound following the Plymouth game but he will be available for the Swansea game.