Sam Allardyce today paid tribute to long-serving midfielder Tugay, who is set to retire at the end of the season.

"Tugay's had a fantastic career, not just here, but throughout his playing days. However, at 38 years of age and with the ever-increasing demands, particularly physically, of the Premier League, things eventually catch up with you.

"You can't go on forever and Tugay has had a magnificent time and a magnificent run - playing at the top for most of his career. It has drawn to a very good end, certainly if we stay in the Premier League, and he has made a big contribution to helping us.

"So I think that it'll be one of those whereby we say farewell at the end of the season and thank him very much for all he has done for Blackburn Rovers."

As for the possibility of Tugay staying on in a coaching capacity, the manager said: "Not really, because he's not qualified to coach and I only employ qualified people at my management structure.

"If he goes away and does his coaching badges later in his career then I'm sure he'll always have an eye on coming back to Blackburn at some stage.

"But he doesn't know which way he is going to go forward in coaching terms anyway, so he will decide what his career path is at the end of the season."