Blackburn boss Sam Allardyce has admitted it is unlikely new signing Elrio van Heerden will feature in the Premiership before Christmas. The Rovers boss wants the 25-year-old to spend some time working on his physique.

Allardyce told the club's official website: "We need to build him up a little strength-wise, he's not the biggest of lads, but he has the similarities of his international team-mate Pienaar who plays at Everton and we all know how well he's done.

"So if he settles quickly and gets stuck in to the regimes that we have, the core strength work, the flexibility, the mobility and we build him up a little bit then I'm sure he'll make an impact as the season progresses.

"I'm not envisaging it will be from the start of the season, I don't want anyone to think that come the 15th of August he's going to be right out there, although that would be a major bonus if that was the case.

"I think in and around the middle of the season we should see the sort of development that we need and then we should see him use his abilities on the field from there on."