The 3 Blackburn Rovers players likely to never play for the club again | OneFootball

Blackburn Rovers, after a slight relegation scare, will be in the Championship next season, and their thoughts will now fully turn to the action that they are going to take in the summer.

Based on the success of last season, Rovers haven't lived up to expectations. Their poor goal difference was all that kept them out of the top six last season, but the 2023/24 campaign has been a different story entirely.

With one game remaining in the season, Blackburn are much closer to the relegation zone than they hoped/expected to be.

Many factors have gone into this; poor recruitment, Jon Dahl Tomasson not being able to repeat the success of last season, and more.

Rovers probably won't have too much exciting news when it comes to their retained/released list at the end of the campaign.

The likes of Andrew Moran and Yasin Ayari are set to return to their parent club, but the major names who are out of contract - Tyrhys Dolan and Sam Gallagher - have options in their contracts to extend them by a year, as per Transfermarkt.

There are going to be some casualties after the 46th, and final, game of Blackburn's 23/24 Championship campaign, and these are three players who fans may never see in a blue and white striped shirt again.

1 Sammie Szmodics

A lot of the attention that will be focused on the club over the summer will be about the future of Sammie Szmodics. The league's top scorer is expected to be in high demand, and for that, Rovers are set to charge a premium fee for him.

Journalist Alan Nixon has said, via his Patreon, that the club are set to ask for between £15-20 million - a similar region to the price that they sold Adam Wharton to Crystal Palace for.

Brentford, Luton Town and Sheffield United are all said to be admirers of the Irish international, as per Nixon.

With that level of interest and intrigue, from clubs of their standing, there's a good chance that he will move on.

2 Kyle McFadzean

Big centre-half Kyle McFadzean has made it clear that he would like to stay with Blackburn beyond this season. He said, via the Lancashire Telegraph: "I want to stay here, I have really enjoyed it. I think that next year I can be a big part and help even more."

McFadzean continued: "I don't know what the future holds. I'd like to finish, have pre-season and come back to stake a place."

The question over the defender won't just be about his ability, but also about his age. The 37-year-old is undoubtedly towards the back end of his career, and, unless a player of that nature is putting in veteran performances week in, week out, it can be hard to justify their place in the team.

3 John Fleck

Like the aforementioned central defender, John Fleck joined Blackburn in the winter transfer window. The Scottish midfielder had been with Sheffield United since the summer of 2016, before making the free switch to the Lancashire side.

McFadzean has been involved in the team somewhat frequently since his arrival - the same cannot be said for Fleck. He's been so underused that he may as well not have joined the club. He sustained a shin injury in early March that ruled him out for the remainder of the campaign.

It would be a big shock to see him come back to Ewood Park for the 2024/25 season.