Sky Sports pundit makes Ben Brereton Diaz claim as Blackburn Rovers prepare for Preston test

Sky Sports pundit Andy Hinchcliffe has admitted that if Ben Brereton Diaz is able to perform at his very best in Blackburn Rovers’ last three games of the season, there is a chance that the club could still secure a top-six finish in the Championship.

The Chile international has been a stand-out performer for Rovers this season as he has scored 21 goals for the club in the second-tier.

However, since making his return from injury earlier this month, the forward has failed to find the back of the net in three of his last four appearances.

A run of three defeats and two draws in their last five league games has hindered Blackburn’s progress in the Championship.

Yet despite this lack of form, Tony Mowbray’s side are still only three points adrift of Sheffield United who currently occupy the final play-off spot in the Championship.

Blackburn will be looking to bounce back from their recent defeats to Peterborough United and Stoke City when they head to Deepdale to face Preston North End on April 25th.

Ahead of this fixture, Hinchcliffe has offered an assessment on the current situation that Blackburn find themselves in.

Speaking on the latest episode of the Sky Sports EFL Podcast about Rovers, Hinchcliffe said: “If you look at the season they’ve had and Ben Brereton Diaz, they are not exactly a one-man team but you look at those 19 games that they’ve played in 2022, Brereton Diaz has only been involved in 10 of them.

“So that the problem is when you’ve got someone who is scoring goals as regularly as he is and he’s missing, it’s not just he’s missing the goals, the team psychologically feel that if he’s not playing and not around, how are we going to score as we always rely on him and that is the major problem.

“But he is