Roque Santa Cruz suffered a groin injury in last night’s win over Sunderland and is reportedly a doubt for Blackburn’s FA Cup tie at the weekend [source].

Santa Cruz was replaced by Derbyshire at half-time having sustained the injury. Hughes has revealed that he was planning to rest the striker at the weekend regardless of the knock. The worry for fantasy managers though, is that the injury will be enough for him to be a doubt for the Premiership visit to Bolton on January 13.

As I posted earlier in the week, Hughes has already admitted that the Paraguayan has been playing with a number of niggling injuries and it could be that the rigorous Christmas and New Year programme has taken it’s toll. If only to demonstrate that the Santa Cruz puns aren’t just for Christmas, they’ll be many fantasy managers monitoring the “Roque road” to recovery.

Rovers now have few striking options going into the FA Cup clash with Coventry. Derbyshire suffered a hip injury on replacing Santa Cruz whilst Roberts is apparently sidelined with a foot injury sustained in training. The only good news for Hughes as far as strikers are concerned is the omission of McCarthy from the South Africa’s African Cup of Nations squad.