BLACKBURN Rovers today played down talk of a move for Ivory Coast star Lassina Diabate.

A story in one of the weekend tabloids claimed manager Graeme Souness was about to splash out £3 million on the Bordeaux utility man.

But chief executive John Williams has revealed Souness has no immediate plans to sign the player - even though he was at Ewood yesterday to watch Rovers beat Leeds United.

"There was a boy from France here yesterday who was brought over by his agent but nothing looks like it's going to happen," said Williams this morning.

"We are always interested in cheap players but I don't think anything is going to come of this."

Diabate is represented by Monaco-based agent Willy McKay, the man behind previous moves to bring Lucien Mettomo, Djimi Traore and Kaba Diawara to Ewood.

The vastly experienced Diabate would be free to sign for Rovers despite the current transfer restrictions because he is now a free agent and technically unemployed.

But, as yet, he has not trained with Rovers and he was only brought to the club on the off-chance by McKay.

Souness first agreed to meet the player after injuries threatened to decimate his squad last week.

But Garry Flitcroft, Henning Berg, Craig Short and David Thompson have since returned to full fitness and the manager is also hopeful Andy Cole, Dwight Yorke and Damien Duff should all be back in contention in time for next Monday's trip to West Brom.