JORDAN Rhodes will aim to fire Blackburn Rovers closer to the play-off places at Charlton Athletic tomorrow after Gary Bowyer moved to draw a line under the in-demand striker’s future.

Middlesbrough want to take Rhodes on loan for the rest of the season with the promise of a £10m permanent deal in the summer on the condition they win promotion to the Premier League.

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But with Rovers still in with an outside chance of the top six Venky’s have no intention of sanctioning such a move.

Speaking ahead of tomorrow’s trip to the Valley Bowyer confirmed the club’s owners share the stance he has taken throughout the week – and that is Rhodes is going nowhere on loan.

Rovers boss Bowyer said: “They (Venky’s) are of the same opinion as ourselves – why would we want to be doing that?

“People will always try and do what they want to do and go about it in different ways but like I have said, it just does not add up.

“Why would we want to do that? It’s not a charity case we are running here.”

Nottingham Forest, Derby County and Norwich City have also been linked with Rhodes whose injury-time winner against Bolton Wanderers on Wednesday night moved Rovers within 11 points off the play-offs with 10 games to play.

Middlesbrough head coach Aitor Karanka yesterday refused to be drawn on his club’s bid for the 25-year-old.

He said: “Jordan Rhodes is not our player so I prefer to speak about our players.”

But Forest manager Dougie Freedman did admit he tried – and failed – to sign Rhodes on a similar loan-to-buy deal that Boro are proposing.

Freedman said: “I phoned Gary Bowyer and he was very open and honest with me saying he was not going out on loan so that was the end of the conversation.

“There was a rumour in the game that he could be going out on loan and I’m a big admirer of Jordan so out of respect I phoned Gary.

“I spoke to him and said if that was to come up we’d be interested in loaning with a view to a permanent if we did go up but he just squashed it straight away.”

Derby head coach Steve McClaren revealed he is looking for a new forward but reckons Rovers, who are one win away from Wembley in the FA Cup, would be ‘crazy’ to let Rhodes leave.

McClaren said: “I can’t honestly believe where that name came from, I can’t believe that Blackburn would let him go.

“They are in an FA Cup quarter-final replay. Are they barmy? Are they crazy?

“So I cannot see that. It has gathered momentum but I can’t see it. If it happened, it would be very interesting.”

Rhodes’ winner on Wednesday was his fifth goal in his last eight games, his 14th of the season, and his 67th in 132 appearances for Rovers since his club record £8m move from Huddersfield Town in August 2012.

“The lad just wants to score goals, it’s as simple as that,” said Bowyer, who is hoping Markus Olsson and Corry Evans will be fit tomorrow after they came off against Bolton with a tight hamstring and a dead leg respectively.

“Like I said before the match I didn’t have any doubts about him scoring because he always does after there’s been speculation about him.

“He has no control over the speculation, we have no control over the speculation, we just get on with our jobs and he did his very well on Wednesday night.

“He’s playing at Charlton on Saturday and that’s where we’re at with it.”

Injury-ravaged Rovers will be boosted by the return of on-loan Bolton duo Alex Baptiste and Jay Spearing tomorrow after being ineligible to face their parent club on Wednesday.