How experience helped Sean McLoughlin step into leadership role at Rovers

Sean McLoughlin has had to step up as a leader at Blackburn Rovers this season – but it is a role he has relished.

The 29-year-old has been a constant figure in the backline, which has seen plenty of change after injuries to the likes of Hayden Carter, Scott Wharton and Lewis Miller.

He has also taken on the captain’s armband while Todd Cantwell and Wharton have been sidelined.

“It's an honour to be given the armband and to lead the lads out,” he said. “I just try and lead by example every day, try and conduct myself in the right way.

“It's obviously flattering that the management think that I should be wearing the armband in the absence of Todd and Scott. It doesn't change much for me the way I conduct myself, but definitely an honour.”

The centre-back added: “When you're experienced and you've played in the league a long time, you try and help the younger lads as much as possible, drawing on experiences.

“It's just about leading by example every day in training, the messages that you're giving to the lads, trying to lead the team and make sure that everybody's on the same page.”

McLoughlin’s ever-presence in the league has been crucial given the injury problems around him, although the summer signing admits there is a big element of luck involved.

“If you look at a lot of injuries that we've had, there's been some muscle injuries but there's been a lot of non-contact injuries in terms of ACLs, Achilles and stuff like that, so there's just an element of bad luck in that,” he explained.

“But for me, I just always try to look after myself the best that I can and make sure I'm giving myself the best chance to be available for the manager and for the team. I've been lucky with injuries this season.”

McLoughlin experienced a relegation dogfight with Hull City last season that went all the way to the final day before narrowly finishing above the dotted line.

“It's difficult and when you're in this situation, the easy thing to do would be put your head down, make excuses and blame other things,” he said.

“But when I'm looking around the quality that we have in the dressing room, we're more than capable of being safe and finishing the season well.

“It's just about drawing on those experiences that I've had and trying to help the lads. Maybe there's things that I've learned last year that I would have done differently and maybe I'm trying to help the lads do differently this season.

“It's just about staying positive and believing in ourselves and believing in the ability that we have in the team.”

With no Rovers game this afternoon, the defender will be trying his best not to be glued to his phone checking the scores.

“I think you will always be checking the scores in the league throughout the whole season,” he admitted.

“We know we have a certain goal that we want to get to and it doesn't really matter how the other teams do.

“You just have to focus on yourself and make sure you get to that goal. You can’t be caught up in thinking, ‘This team won, this team lost’.”