David Dunn will miss the match on Boxing Day due to his ongoing calf injury.

The Rovers forward hasn't featured for Rovers since limping out of the game against Stoke City last month, but whilst he is making progress in his recovery, the game at the DW Stadium and possibly the match against Sunderland on Bank Holiday Monday are probably too soon.

"Dunn won't be back unfortunately," admitted Rovers boss Sam Allardyce. "But Brett Emerton is getting closer to a return, he's quicker than David at the moment.

"So we've more chance of Brett returning first than David, possibly for the game against Sunderland."

Whilst being without Dunn has been a source of frustration for the Rovers boss, he sees no sense in rushing him back into action too soon.

"David is a slow healer, it is just about making sure that he's 100% right before he comes back, it is better to be patient now than risk a re-occurance."

Whilst Dunn, Emerton and Vince Grella are all absent for the Boxing Day clash, Rovers do welcome back Chris Samba, meaning those three are the only players unavailable for selection, something Allardyce is relieved at at this stage of the season.

"We missed Chris Samba last week with a stomach bug, but he's back okay now.

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"But based on a lot of clubs around the country there are a lot of clubs doing a lot worse than we are. We can't expect to have a fully fit squad all the time in today's football, you have to cope the best you can when you've not got players through injury.

"As it happens, Dunny was one of our biggest players when he got injured, Brett came back and was the same and Vince, when he has played has looked very good.

"So we could do with them back but we have to cope with the squad that we've got."