Blackburn Rovers boss Steve Kean intends to select want-away defender Christopher Samba.

Samba submitted a transfer request after Rovers turned down two bids from QPR but the club have insisted he will not be sold in January.

Explaining his decision, Kean said: "It was a tough week. We've had a couple of bids for Chris from one club. We put out a strong statement, he handed in a transfer request so all those things put together, I thought it was best he wasn't involved.

"This is the last game for us before the window closes. He'll be back in next week and we can move on, get him back in for the next game and get him back playing."

He added: "If Chris is going to move, it's not going to be in this window. It wasn't a case of trying to get teams bidding against each other to get a figure up, we'd just like to keep him, it's as simple as that.

"You could see we've got other lads we can put in, it was a tough decision leaving Grant Hanley out to put Scott Dann in so we've got real competition for places in the centre-half position and we want Chris to be one of those players competing and putting performances in for us, as he's done ever since he's been at the club."