Derby County, Norwich City and Sheffield Wednesday have been given a major blow in their hopes of signing Blackburn Rovers striker Jordan Rhodes.

Blackburn Rovers manager Gary Bowyer has dismissed rumours of Rhodes leaving Ewood Park, and see's him as an integral part of the team.

Speaking to the Blackburn official website, Bowyer said:

"I just don't understand why we would want to consider loaning one of our players to rivals in the Championship,"

"I think it has come out of possibly the fact that he wasn't involved in the starting XI on Sunday. But if you look at our game plan and how we went about, it we were never going to go to Anfield with two strikers.

A host of Championship clubs have been vying for the striker's signature, including Derby County, Norwich City and Sheffield Wednesday.

"There's been a lot said about going to Anfield and Premier League teams playing two strikers and not getting anything there, so we certainly weren't going to be do that. So I think it has all come out of that really, Bowyer added.

"We've got 11 league games left and a cup quarter-final with a potential visit to Wembley if we were to be successful, so why we'd want to be letting any of our players go at this stage is beyond me.

"Jordan Rhodes plays on Wednesday against Bolton and we look forward to him scoring like he did last week against Sheffield Wednesday."

Rhodes is well known for his knack of scoring goals in the second tier, and he scored an impressive 25 league goals in 46 league games last year for Rovers.

Blackburn Rovers currently sit in 11th position in the Sky Bet Championship, and any hopes of a promotion push in the latter stages of the season look slim.

The Scotland International has only managed to score 13 goals this season for Gary Bowyer's side, a figure which is low for Jordan Rhodes' standards.