Blackburn Rovers boss Tony Mowbray admits they'll struggle to replace Harvey Elliott this season.

Elliott was outstanding for Rovers on-loan last season from Liverpool.

Mowbray has admitted that trying to replace someone as good as Elliott with all the attributes he has, is not easy.

He told the Lancashire Telegraph: “We're talking to a lot of Premier League clubs, with where we are we're going to have to loan, but they start a week after us so are going through their pre-season fixtures now and using all their players.

“A lot of the big clubs, their players have been away at the Euros or the Copa America and they're not back so they're using their younger players.

“When that changes I'm sure the players we've identified and spoken to these clubs about might come available."

Before continuing: “We need more individual talent, players who can beat players, because we have a lot of hardworking honest players which is a real positive, but sometimes the game dictates that you need players with individual talent like (Bradley) Dack brings to our football club when he's available.

“ Harvey Elliott brought that to an extent last year with his individuality and range of passing, they're not easy to find, you can't just pluck them out of the air.

“If we had lost 2-0 I'd have been extraordinarily disappointed with the fact we couldn't score against Bradford or Bolton, but we scored twice and had other opportunities.

“We have to be able to change the format of games, too often last season we lost by the odd goal and I'm hoping if we can strengthen up before the window closes that we'll have better options to be able to play different ways with different players."