Blackburn postpone pre-season trip to India

Blackburn have postponed their pre-season friendly in India after last week's terrorist bombings in Mumbai.

Rovers, owned by Indian poultry firm Venky's, were due to appear in Pune and become the first Premier League team to play in India, but will now reschedule.

"The trip is not cancelled, it is postponed to another date because of the activity out there," said Blackburn manager Steve Kean.

"That trip will now take place at the beginning of October."

Twenty-one people were killed and 113 injured when three near-simultaneous explosions shook India's commercial capital Mumbai on Wednesday.

It had been suggested some of the Blackburn players did not want to go on the trip, but Kean denied that was the case.

"The board had a meeting with the owners and spoke and decided we had to go through a number of different checks so we have rescheduled," added Kean.

"The players are looking for guidance and as long as everything was explained to them they were fine as a group.

"I think the owners would have been disappointed if it was totally finished but the fact it has been put back a couple of months softens the disappointment."

A joint statement from the club and the owners said: "Safety is always our top priority and after detailed discussions with our security and legal advisors we have been left with no option other than to postpone.

"While everyone is obviously disappointed, we all accept the circumstances and the reasoning. We are now looking forward to the trip to India in a few weeks' time."

El-Hadji Diouf is expected to return to training on Wednesday with his future at the club in doubt.

The Senegal international went AWOL earlier this month and was uncontactable despite a number of attempts by Ewood Park officials.

He is unlikely to be in the squad which flies out to Hong Kong for the Barclays Premier League Trophy at the weekend and Kean hinted there was at least one club interested in signing him.

"I don't know where he is right now but I know where he will be tomorrow - or at least he's telling us he'll be here tomorrow," said the Rovers boss.

"He's not been here since the end of last season and we tried to make contact with him and couldn't.

"He will face a disciplinary when he comes in, we'll discuss that with him and his representatives, and we will see what the way forward is. We will discuss the options of him potentially moving on."