A Blackburn Rovers writer explains their poor form and why they’ll be especially wary of Atdhe Nuhiu

The visitors to Hillsborough are on a run of six without a win and will be without top scorer Bradley Dack after he underwent surgery on his cruciate ligaments, a recovery that is likely to rule him out for the majority of 2020.

So where do Tony Mowbray’s men turn to for goals and which Wednesday forward puts a bit of fear into Rovers?

We spoke to the Lancashire Telegraph’s Richard Sharpe for the inside track on all things Blackburn.

Rovers are on a poor run at current with key man Bradley Dack out for the foreseeable – what’s been going on?

It’s five in the Championship and six in all competitions now.

After their last win [2-0 at Bristol City on December 14] they’d climbed from 18th to eighth and were only a couple of points off the play-offs but things have gone awry since.

Injuries obviously haven’t helped and it’s come at a time where they’ve had a lot of games and haven’t had any amount of time to adjust, with Dack being the main one.

There’s been three consecutive draws at Ewood and have lost three away which has stunted any momentum they’ve had. It’s been a difficult month for all concerned.

Aside from Dack, what other injuries have been an issue?

Greg Cunningham has been out since October and so left-back has been a bit of a problem position. Corry Evans was carried off on a stretcher last week and the diagnosis on that doesn’t look great either.

Defender Ryan Nyambe has struggled with a hamstring injury, he came on last week and then went off again, the suggestion is that he might be fit this weekend.

And then in terms of players that have been in and out, there’s Lewis Holtby, Derek Williams, Danny Graham has been ill.

Every week there has been a few new ones and then every time they get someone back it seems there have been a few more that have gone down.

So who needs to step up in his absence?

Adam Armstrong has five in nine and eight for the season. He’s the man they’ll look to.

He’s played a lot for Rovers out wide but with Dack not being around there’s a good chance we’ll see him more in the more central areas because he’s been the most natural goalscorer they’ve got.

They’ve splashed the cash on Sam Gallagher, £5m in the summer, and that’s not really worked out. He’s scored three goals.

There’s Ben Brereton the season before, similar money on him, and he’s not pulled up any trees, so Dack’s injury has shone more of a light on those two. They need to start producing while Dack’s out.

Armstrong has been the one that has stuck his hand up. He’s the sort of player that might end up on 15.

After Wednesday Rovers face QPR, Middlesbrough and Fulham. Things aren’t going to get any easier are they?

They’re coming into some teams that have hit a bit of form.

But they’re coming into a period where there is more time between games now and they're hoping that might give them more breathing space.

Everyone is just looking for a lift now, whether that’s somebody coming in during the transfer window or a positive result somewhere. They need that pick me up.

Last season they were in a similar position, they won some games and ended up two points off the play-offs, but then got some injuries and fell away.

They are that sort of streaky side really, they can easily go six unbeaten or six without a win. People are concerned it might unravel and it’ll be another middle-of-the-road finish.

Given their recent form, is Tony Mowbray under pressure at Ewood Park?

When they were 17th after 16 games there were growing concerns, but then they went on that brilliant run.

They’ve dropped away a bit and he’s been here three years next month. He accepts that when a manager has been there three years you have to continually show signs of progress.

The big thing is that the two big-money buys haven’t worked and any manager is judged on his signings and he could do with one of those two coming good between now and the end of the season.

How does his injury affect Dack’s chances of moving on upwards in his career?

They’ve not been fighting off bids for him. He was 26 on New Year’s Eve, and I’ve done an interview with him where he said he wants to play in the Premier League.

He knew he was coming into a key part of his career and that’s what’s made it all the more cruel, for the lad more than Rovers.

He’s been there two-and-a-half years now and has given great service scored a lot of goals and I think this summer was the more likely time than January for him to move on.

He’s coming into the last year of his contract and if Rovers couldn’t have got into the top six this year there probably would have been an understanding that as long as a bid came in that matched what they were asking it could have been something they’d have looked at.

But this injury has thrown everything up in the air really.

Who is the man Blackburn will be most wary of?

If I was Garry Monk I’d chuck Atdhe Nuhiu in there. He’s always one that seems to do well against Rovers.

If he plays he’d certainly be one to keep an eye on. Preston’s Jayden Stockley bashed them about a bit and when Rovers went to Wednesday last year Nuhiu was twice the size of anybody they had at the back.

Darragh Lenihan has been injured and should be back but at times they have been knocked about a bit by big centre-forwards. I think they’ll feel a bit better about dealing with Nuhiu with Lenihan back in the team but Nuhiu is one to watch.