Injury updates on Tommy Rowe, Jon Taylor and Ben Close ahead of Doncaster Rovers' clash with Cambridge United

And Jon Taylor has been ruled out of the game after suffering another setback with his recovery from an ankle injury.

Rowe was forced off with a back spasm early into Saturday’s win over Cheltenham Town and has shown little improvement since.

“He’s not felt great over the weekend,” boss Richie Wellens said. “He’s not going to train on Monday and we’ll give him as long as possible to make the game.

“But he’s going to be very doubtful.

“He’s got a ligament problem with the bottom of his back that he needs to free up.

“There’s no real timescale on when it’s going to free up. He’s not moving great this morning so we’ll give him as long as possible because he’s a big player for us.

“But if he’s not right then it’ll give someone else the opportunity.”

Taylor will be absent from the Cambridge game after reporting pain in his ankle. The winger had two bouts of surgery on the ankle injury he suffering in March which kept him out of action for seven months.

He returned off the bench in the defeat to Wycombe Wanderers earlier this month but has missed the subsequent two matches.

“Tayls has had another setback,” Wellens said.

“Where he's had the operation, with the scar tissue he’s got a nerve problem.

“I’ve had it myself and my view was that I needed to train to get it freed up but Jon is uncomfortable doing it.”

Wellens was pleased with the performance of Rodrigo Vilca who started against Cheltenham in place of Taylor.

“I thought Rodrigo played really well,” he said. “We were lucky that because Jon didn’t train on Friday, Rodrigo did all the shape work and I thought he carried it out really well.

“He should take a lot of confidence from his performance. He scored the winning goal but out of possession he was so much better.

“If he does all the basics out of possession then he’s a talented footballer who can handle the ball and will cause teams problems.

Wellens also confirmed that Ben Close’s on-going hamstring issue has flared up and made him an injury concern for Tuesday night.

“Ben has a problem with his hamstring again so we’ll have to manage him,” he said.

“But Dan Gardner is back fit now so that kind of softens that blow.”

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