CHRIS Samba will captain Blackburn Rovers at the Stadium of Light this afternoon if he passes a late fitness test on his ankle injury.

The giant defender held clear the air talks with Rovers boss Steve Kean and will be handed the captain’s armband again if he wins his fitness fight having been stripped of it last week.

Rovers are already without seven senior players through injury and suspension for this afternoon’s visit to Sunderland, but Kean is hopeful of adding at least two new signings within the next couple of weeks.

Kean submitted his wish-list to his bosses in India yesterday afternoon with more than a dozen names on it – including four choices for each position.

Samba has been linked with moves away from Ewood Park ever since threatening to quit in the wake of Sam Allardyce’s sacking – Aston Villa being the latest reported suitors. That led to Kean taking the captaincy off him.

But now after a heart to heart with Samba, Kean has been convinced his defender is committed to the club and believes Rovers’ new ambitions will minimise the prospect of his departure.

Kean said: “If he is fit he will captain the side. I had a chat with him before he had the fitness test before the West Brom game, that was the morning of the game.

“He pushed hard but he was still feeling it. He was not confident of placing his foot down and was not striking the ball properly. He was getting a twinge but hopefully that will be better.

“The way he explained it to me was really good. He said ‘I have never asked to leave. All I said was if a bigger club come in for me, as I have aspirations to play in Europe and to win things, then I would consider that’.

“I have tried to stress to him we are trying to build a squad that gets us into the top half and come the next window we will be trying to make a difference to the squad again and build a team that is challenging top six.

“As soon as he heard that he was much more positive. He said ‘great I am happy now that I know we are going to be making signings and are aspiring to be at the top end of the table and not the other end.

“He said he didn’t want to make a sidestep so you are minimising the clubs who could come in for him and that can only be good for us.”

Kean enters the January transfer window still unsure about how much money will be made available to him by the club’s new owners, Venky’s.

He has been told they will financially back him and is hopeful of getting more idea on his budget in the next couple of days to allow him to move quickly for his targets.

Kean said: “We will put in ball park valuations but until you start to negotiate with a player you don’t know what sort of salaries they will ask for.

“You put in what you think they are currently on but you know they won’t come any cheaper. So we put in ballpark figures and if we can get something agreed in principle with the owners then we can start making approaches and doing things properly.

“We want to do it in the first part of the window and then the business is done. Then hopefully we can resist any offers for the lads that we get from elsewhere.

“We will put our targets in order. We will say ‘if possible this is our first choice in this position, then our second, our third and fourth’. Hopefully we can get all our first choices.

“Like ourselves though there will be clubs who are resisting, like ourselves, and not welcoming any interest. There are at least a dozen names on the list.”