Michael O

Michael O'Neill conceded he had huge fears Blackburn Rovers would be relegated, driven by their injury crisis.

Rovers have preserved their Championship status after six wins in their final 14 games under O'Neill. They have done that with double-figure injuries, which include four or five nailed-on starters.

Losing Sondre Tronstad, Lewis Miller and Andri Gudjohnsen within weeks of each other was particularly a big blow. Hayden Carter then picked up another knock, whilst Eiran Cashin and Scott Wharton have had knocks too. Throw in all those on the periphery that could've helped with rotation and it's been a difficult period.

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"Every week, if I'm honest. Yeah, every week," O'Neill admitted when asked if there was a point he felt they might go down.

"Because having won the first two games and then you lose two, you know, you start to see...we lost key players. The likes of Tronstad, Miller, we lost Cashin and Hayden for a period. Andri Gudjohnsen. All of those situations.

"So suddenly you're looking and going, well, maybe four or five of our starting players are not available to us.

"We didn't know the players. It was a short space of time to learn about the players. A lot of the players were coming back from injury as well. So a little bit undercooked and not maybe in the ideal place we'd want them to be.

"So, yeah, it wasn't easy. It was very, very difficult at times to get the right team on the pitch.

"You know, we'd just spend the day and night. We'd spend hours looking at that board and going, what will we do with this? How will we play, given the resources that we have?"

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O'Neill reserved special praise for the role Damien Johnson has played to bridge the knowledge gap and provide continuity between the previous regime and new staff members.

"I think the staff have done a magnificent job. Damien's been outstanding because he knows the players better than anyone," O'Neill insisted.

"He's been bang on with his assessment of the players as well. In terms of how he prepared the team with myself, Steven, Phil and Damien and the existing staff, who have been excellent in preparing the team physically for us.

"Ben Benson with the goalkeepers and the medical team have been brilliant as well because they've had to deal with a hell of a lot.”

Rovers' players will now have a deserved break after four games in 10 days. That will see them off for the remainder of this week before preparations begin to play Leicester City in what is now ultimately a dead rubber game.

"Yeah, I've told them they can decide when they're in next week," he said with a laugh.

"So they'll certainly get the rest of this week and the weekend off and we'll be in on Monday. But I think it's important we finish strongly as well.

"55 points is there for us to take and it's important that, we go out with a good performance at home."