Rovers reject City's Santa Cruz bid

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City boss Mark Hughes stepped up his interest in the player he brought to Ewood Park last season but his latest offer was knocked back by his former club.

"We have made an improved bid, a substantial bid for Roque Santa Cruz but it was rejected," said Hughes.

"We made a bid in the region of £12million in the summer and it (the new bid) is significantly higher than that.

"But we still want to bring him to the club if we can but he is Blackburn's player and they don't want to deal at the level we have made a bid at.

"That is their prerogative."

Hughes also revealed approaches had been turned down for West Ham duo Scott Parker and Craig Bellamy.

"We made initial enquiries about Parker and Bellamy, made a double bid, but that was rejected. We haven't gone back to the table on that one but we may well do," he added.

There was some good news for Hughes, however, with Shaun Wright-Phillips likely to be out for only two to three weeks with a hamstring injury sustained in Saturday's FA Cup defeat to Nottingham Forest.

"It's a little bit better than we first thought because it was looking like being over a month but the hope is it'll be two to three weeks," said Hughes.