Tom Parkes is a defender who initially joined Rovers on a month-long loan deal from Leicester City in February 2012. He was brought in to fill a hole in an injury-ravaged defensive line and to play alongside his fellow on-loan Leicester teammate Cian Bolger in a very young central defensive pairing. Despite their tender years, manager Mark McGhee was happy playing the pair together as they had both come though The Foxes' youth system and had been competing alongside each other for several years.