Doncaster forward El-Hadji Diouf will miss the visit of league leaders Saints after a hamstring injury ruled him out for a month.
The problem meant Diouf was absent when Rovers went down 3-2 at Millwall on Tuesday night and scans confirmed the 30-year-old former Liverpool and Bolton star is around four weeks away from a return to action.
Defensive duo Pascal Chimbonda (hip) and Shelton Martis (groin) will be keeping Diouf company on the sidelines for a similar length of time.
Rovers skipper George Friend and James Coppinger are set to give boss Dean Saunders respective options in defence and attack after stepping up their involvement in training following foot injuries.
Adam Lockwood serves the final game of a three-match ban for the bottom-versus-top clash, while Richard Naylor is expected to miss out once more with a broken finger.
Martin Woods (groin), Chris Brown and James Chambers (both knee) remain long-term absentees.
Richard Chaplow will be missing for Saints in this bottom-versus-top encounter.
Midfielder Chaplow has not recovered from the knee injury which forced him to miss Tuesday night's 2-1 win over Hull, so Morgan Schneiderlin looks set to keep his place.
David Connolly is expected to miss out again with a groin problem but fellow striker Lee Barnard is pushing for his first start of the season, having made four substitute appearances since recovering from an ankle injury.
Danny Fox was rested in midweek and could come back in for Dan Harding at left-back while winger Steve de Ridder may have earned a start after coming on at half-time against Hull with Saints 1-0 down.
Defenders Radhi Jaidi (knee) and Dan Seaborne (head) remain on the sidelines.
