‎Blackburn Rovers left two players out of their EFL squad

Blackburn Rovers have confirmed that Ryan Hedges and George Pratt have been excluded from their 25-man EFL squad for the rest of the season.

Following the January transfer window, Rovers were required to register 25 players for the Championship campaign. They entered the window with 24, recalled Connor O’Riordan, and added Eiran Cashin, Dapo Afolayan and Mathias Jorgensen, taking the total to 27.

With only Makhtar Gueye leaving the club, two players needed to be left out, and those omissions have now been confirmed.

Hedges has been ruled out largely due to injury, with the club believing his leg problem will sideline him for most of the remaining fixtures.

The Welshman was not expected to return until April at the earliest, and with only a limited number of games left after that, Rovers opted against including him.

The 30-year-old is out of contract in the summer and may already have played his final match for the club. Former head coach Valérien Ismaël had been keen to offer him a new deal, but the change in management has cast uncertainty over his future.

Pratt, meanwhile, has missed out due to the competition for places on the left side of defence. Scott Wharton, Sean McLoughlin and Eiran Cashin are all ahead of him at centre-back, while there are also multiple options at left-back, leaving him without a clear pathway into the squad. As a result, he will not feature again in the Championship this season.

Rovers are understood to be exploring the possibility of a National League loan for Pratt, who remains eligible to play outside the EFL. The move is seen as a way to ensure he continues his development through regular game time.

The decision comes as a blow for Pratt, who was named Rovers’ Player of the Month in December. However, his involvement had already diminished following Hayden Carter’s return from injury and the arrival of Cashin.

Hedges, who has spent four years at Ewood Park, remains the club’s longest-serving player outside of academy graduates and will hope his time at Rovers does not end on a disappointing note.

Rovers’ registered 25-man EFL squad is: Toth, Pears; Alebiosu, Miller, Carter, O’Riordan, Wharton, McLoughlin, Cashin, Pickering, Ribeiro; Tronstad, Baradji, Cantwell, Forshaw, Gardner-Hickman, Tavares, Henriksson; Morishita, Afolayan, Kagbo, De Neve, Jorgensen, Ohashi, Gudjohnsen.