Rovers will give late checks to Gaël Givet and Benni McCarthy ahead of Thursday's Carling Cup semi-final first leg.

Givet's clash of heads with Steven Nzonzi on Monday saw the defender come off worse and he is considered a doubt for the Ewood encounter whilst Benni McCarthy suffered a back spasm in the warm up at the City of Manchester Stadium on Monday night.

Jason Roberts misses out with a knee injury whilst Vince Grella remains absent with a thigh strain. Added to the absent list is El-Hadji Diouf who serves the second of a three match ban, but Steven Nzonzi should be fit to face Aston Villa although he is missing a couple of teeth after his accidental collision with Givet in the last minute against Manchester City.

"Gael is a slight concern with the head injury with Steven Nzonzi," said Allardyce. "But Nzonzi is okay.

"He looks a lot uglier which is good with his teeth being knocked out.

"Benni, with his back spasm, means we won't know about him until tomorrow."

This means that the manager will select from: Robinson, Brown, Jacobsen, Salgado, Chimbonda, Samba, Nelsen, Jones, Givet, Olsson, Emerton, Hoilett, Nzonzi, Dunn, Andrews, Reid, Pedersen, Di Santo, Kalinić, McCarthy.

Tickets for Thursday's Carling Cup semi-final 1st leg at Ewood Park are on open sale right up until the 8.00pm kick-off. Tickets are priced from just £15 for Adults and £5 concessions.