Blackburn Rovers boss Sam Allardyce says new signing Elrio van Heerden needs to spend time in the gym before he's ready for the Premiership.

A free transfer from Club Brugge, South African Van Heerden is tipped for big things by Allardyce, who says: "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 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."