Sam Szmodics and Lewis Travis must avoid picking up a yellow card in their next three Championship games to avoid a ban.
Both players have collected four yellow cards this season and will serve a one-match suspension if they are booked again. Blackburn face Stoke City (A), Birmingham City (H) and Sheffield Wednesday (A) after the international break.
The trip to Hillsborough will be Rovers’ 19th match of the season, which takes place on December 2. After the game, the five-card ban is cut off and rules out the risk of a suspension for a couple of months, at least.
Szmodics has been a key player for Rovers this season, scoring 10 goals and leading the Championship charts. Jon Dahl Tomasson will be keen to ensure he doesn’t miss any league action.
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Travis came back into the team against Preston North End at right-back and performed well. The captain will also be hoping to avoid a ban by being on his best behaviour in the upcoming games.
Hayden Carter is the only Rovers player to have already hit the five-card threshold and served a one-match ban in the win over Norwich City. He subsequently missed the game against North End due to injury but should be fit to return against Stoke.
Joe Rankin-Costello is also on four yellow cards but his three-month lay-off with a hamstring injury rules him out of being banned. No other Blackburn player has more than two yellow this season.
After December 2, any player who receives ten yellow cards up to and including the 37th league game of the season is handed an automatic two-match ban. Reaching 15 yellows up to and including the final game of the regular league season carries a three-match ban.
Remarkably, Jannik Vestergaard has already collected eight bookings this season and now has 21 games to negotiate to avoid picking up a two-game suspension. Ben Pearson and Sam Morsy, two of the Championship’s tough-tacklers, are both on seven.
In terms of red cards, Harry Pickering is the only player to have collected a straight dismissal. That was for his challenge on Liam Delap, bringing down the Hull City man and denying a clear goal-scoring opportunity.
Scott Wharton was also sent off for the same reason against Norwich but that was, of course, overturned on appeal.
No player in the Championship has been sent off more than once this term. Queens Park Rangers midfielder Jack Colback is the highest offending player having collected five yellow and a red card.
Szmodics is the only Rovers player to have started every Championship game this season. Carter had also managed that until he picked up his ban against Norwich.
Picking and Dom Hyam have both started 13 games apiece whilst Callum Brittain (1,189) has played the third-highest total minutes, behind Szmodics (1,394) and Carter (1,260), despite starting 12 times.
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