Blackburn Rovers boss Sam Allardyce confirmed he was aware of the dressing room bust-up between new signing El-Hadji Diouf and former Sunderland team-mate Anton Ferdinand before he signed him.

After their 0-0 draw with Middlesbrough, Allardyce said: "I spoke to [Sunderland chairman] Niall Quinn about it and he said it was not too much of an incident. It wasn't as big as it was blown up in the papers.

"Niall is a very trustworthy man and I believe every word he says. It's not a problem."