Ex-Sheffield Wednesday, Huddersfield Town and Blackburn Rovers striker reveals full extent of pre-season injury scare with Blackpool

The ex-Sheffield Wednesday and Blackburn Rovers striker was on the end of a tough challenge in the Seasiders’ 0-0 draw with Cadiz CF at the end of their pre-season camp in Spain, but came away with no long-term damage and was able to featuring in Tuesday’s behind-closed-doors friendly against West Brom - which ended in a 2-1 victory for Neil Critchley’s side.

Rhodes bagged 15 goals in Tangerine during the first half of last season while on loan from Huddersfield Town, but from the end of January onwards he was only able to feature four times due to two separate problems.

Following his return to Bloomfield Road on a permanent basis, the 34-year-old is set to be a key man, and was quick to provide an update on his injury scare.

“It was just a bit of a bruise,” he told the club website after the West Brom win. 

“There was a point where I thought it might have been worse, but the numbness of the leg went away after a couple of minutes.

“It wasn’t a pleasant challenge but thankfully I came out of it fine and it was good to get 60 minutes under my belt today.

“It was nice to put into practice some of the work we have been doing on the training pitch.

“It was good to get more minutes into a lot of the lads today as well.  Nice to have a positive scoreline to back up the good play we had in the match.

“Carlos Corberan is a very good manager.  I worked with him for a couple of years at Huddersfield.  No doubt they will be one of the Championship’s best teams next season meaning it was always going to be a good test today. 

“It definitely proved that, but it’s a real positive ahead of the new season that we put in a good performance in the heat against a team of West Brom’s calibre.  Pre-season is all about building ahead of the new campaign and today was another step on that journey, before we kick the season off against Crawley.”