During the build-up to the anticipated top of the table clash which is set to take place on Sunday, at Ewood Park between Rovers and Wigan Athletic, Tony Mowbray sat down with Rovers’ media team to discuss the upcoming clash, as well as to speak about the situation of the squad and the weather conditions prior to the match.
“With the weather that we’ve had over the past week, training has been altered. We’re going to have a few sessions indoors, we’ve had the sheets on the pitches, but the wind has been blowing the sheets off and the grass underneath has been frozen. We’re also, of course, trying to prepare Ewood, which has undersoil heating and there’s an option for us to train on the pitch, but it might not be ideal in the long run if we wear the pitch down and tear it up. We have to prepare correctly, despite the conditions because it’s a huge game on Sunday. We’ve had a few days off because we didn’t get back from Wimbledon until 5am. They had the Wednesday and Thursday off, where they hopefully relaxed and played with their kids in the snow, but now we’re back and have to focus on Sunday.
“I think the downtime that they players would have had, on Wednesday and Thursday will be good for them. I enjoyed my time at home with my family, I played in the snow with the kids, who were off school, but it’s good to take yourself away from the mental pressure of the game, whether that being me as a manager or the group as players. I think it’s important to get that balance right between work and family life, of course in this business, it helps when you’re winning games because your focus on your job and your family life also increase.
“I’d like the game to go ahead on Sunday, I know that, when games get called off because of the weather, it’s mostly due to the surrounding areas, in terms of safety to the players, staff and supporters, rather than the pitch itself. For us, I think this game going ahead would be better for our scheduling, it’ll allow us to play the games when they were originally scheduled and it gives us the opportunity to have good breaks between the matches.”
Mowbray was asked regarding the injuries in the squad, to the likes of Peter Whittingham, Ben Gladwin and Harry Chapman and whether they would take longer than originally anticipated to return to action.
“On the injury-front, the likes of (Peter) Whittingham and (Ben) Gladwin are back in training. They’ve been out for a while, so now, they’re building up their fitness, but there’s no need to rush them back into action. The last thing we need is to hurry them back and trigger another injury which will see them miss more weeks. We’ll soon make the decision of when they can be back as they’ll have to play u23s games before they’re thrown back.
“We’re hoping that in the next, 10 days to a week, that Harry Chapman will be back among the group and start training. I spoke to Middlesbrough’s head medical officer the other day and he said that Chapman would be back in about a week and I spoke to Middlesbrough’s doctor around 4-5 days ago. Like Peter and Ben, we’ll have to assess how Harry’s doing and slowly bleed him back into games. Harry’s return will be a big lift for everyone, he’s a chirpy lad and the rest of the lads love him. If we can get him back on the pitch, coming off the bench, as we did at the start of the season and if we need him, he can be a gamechanger for us.”
