Also, the opponent can place a piece, usually a knight, on the hole in front of the pawn without any risk of a pawn driving it away.
The backward pawn also prevents its owner's rooks and queen on the same file from attacking the piece placed on the hole.
If the backward pawn is on a half-open file, the disadvantage is even greater, as the pawn can be attacked more easily by an opponent's rook or queen on the file.
Modern opening theory features several openings in which one of the players deliberately incurs a backward pawn in exchange for some other advantage such as initiative or better development.
Ndb5 d6 (see diagram), Black has a backward pawn on d6, but White now has to endure a displacement of his knights and an undermining of his center after 7.