Tom Davies ended his run of 1,350 uninterrupted League One minutes on Saturday as the centre-back missed the trip to Rochdale.
Davies has arguably been Bristol Rovers' most consistent performers this season after arriving in the summer on a free transfer from Coventry and had become an ever-present pillar of Graham Coughlan's revamped defence.
The 27-year-old's absence from the teamsheet at Spotland as was due to a knee injury which Coughlan was cautious about risking given Davies importance to the side.
The Rovers manager admitted the defender could even be back in training on Monday, while the next two weeks, which features a FA Cup tie against non-league Bromley and the EFL Trophy visit of Swindon to the Mem, gives him ample time to rest the injury before Sunderland on November 16.
"He had a little bit of a knee issue and we didn't want to risk him," Coughlan said. "We didn't want it to become long-term.
"We've done it with quite a few of the lads, Sercs (Liam Sercombe) last week could have started but you're running the risk of you put them on the pitch and give them too much workload. You run the risk of long-term injuries.
"We had ample defensive cover in Mark Little, Rollin Menayese and obviously Alfie (Kilgour) and Tony (Craig), so we just felt we didn't want the gamble and take the chance.
"We didn't want to put the knee under unecessary stress. It's recovering and we hope he'll be back on the training ground on Monday."
Without Davies, Coughlan with wing-backs to a more traditional back four with Kilgour partnering Craig and Mark Little and Michael Kelly orthodox full-backs.
The manager admitted Davies withdrawal played a part in the switch but also the 3-5-2 system, which has been deployed in 12 of 16 league games, had become a little stale and predictable with teams figuring out how to combat Rovers' threats.
The formation bore tremendous results when the Gas first adopted it in late August but a combination of injuries to key individuals such as Jonson Clarke-Harris, Josh Hare and now Davies coupled with its familiarity has affected its potency.
"Tom Davies' injury did have a hand in it but I just felt the shape we were using previously was running its course," .
"Teams were working us out and were nullifying us. We weren't as fluent as we were early on so we just chucked something different at the lads.
"We knew it was going to be backs to the wall, we knew we were going to have to concede the ball because that's the way Rochdale play but we set a couple of traps and, luckily enough we got a couple of early goals and thank god we came away with the three points."
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