MARK Hughes insists he is happy with Benni McCarthy's attitude after the pair had a heart-to-heart earlier this week.

Hughes had a brief meeting with his star striker at Rovers' Brockhall training base on Wednesday, in which he tackled the South African about reports concerning his reaction to being substituted during the 3-1 victory over Newcastle United.

And satisfied by McCarthy's version of events, Hughes has since agreed to draw a line under it, insisting his leading scorer remains fully committed to the cause.

The Rovers boss, who is likely to stick with McCarthy for Sunday's game with West Ham United, said: "A lot of people will look and think Benni is hard to deal with, but Benni is fine.

"He comes to work every day with a smile on his face and he enjoys his work, he trains properly and, more often than not, he scores goals and creates things for others as well.

"People will try to make out there is a problem with Benni but there isn't.

"He's a professional football player and he has his pride, so walking off the pitch when you see your number held up isn't great.

"No-one enjoys that and it doesn't matter whether they've got an ego or not.

"But Benni is a good professional. Sometimes my decisions will affect him, other times they don't."

McCarthy was clearly disappointed at being substituted midway through the second half of last week's game with Newcastle and instead of taking his seat on the bench, he made straight for the tunnel.

However, Hughes said he could understand the player's reaction, having felt similarly frustrated at times during his own FROM BACK PAGE playing career.

"He was disappointed because he's a football player and football players don't like coming off on occasions," said Hughes.

"Sometimes they have to when they are injured, but other times they still think they are going to have an impact.

"As a forward player, you sometimes think you've softened up the opposition for someone else because the chances often come late in games.

"I understand that mentality because I was a forward myself, so maybe I have a little bit more empathy with him in that respect because I understand how he's feeling.

"But he played a key role in the victory (against Newcastle). Next week I might take someone else off who isn't happy with the situation, but that's football players.

"If Benni's anything like me then I was never happy about coming off early.

"Sometimes you make a decision because you feel you need a different threat at a different time in the game, and that was my thinking last week.

"Thankfully, we were able to go on and win the game."

The Rovers chief added: "People said Benni stormed off and went straight down the tunnel and into his car, but that wasn't the case.

"I spoke to him about it and asked for his version of events and he assured me he was there at the end of the game.

"He was dressed, obviously, because he came off early but it wasn't a case of him storming off."