Blackburn Rovers manager Gary Bowyer has ruled out letting Jordan Rhodes leave the club despite the striker sitting out of the FA Cup quarterfinal draw against Liverpool.
Rhodes, 25, has scored 13 goals in the Championship for Blackburn this season, but has been linked with a loan move to either Derby or Norwich after Rudy Gestede was selected in the lone striking role at Anfield.
However, Rovers boss Bowyer has told the BBC that he will not be letting the forward join one of his side's division rivals.
"I don't understand why we'd want to even consider loaning one of our players to rivals," Bowyer said. "I think it's come out of possibly that he wasn't involved in the starting XI on Sunday.
"If you look at our game plan and the way we went about it, we were never going to go to Anfield with two strikers."
Rhodes joined Blackburn in 2012 for eight million pounds and extended his contract at Ewood Park last summer until 2019.
Despite interest from Premier League club Hull last August as well as fellow Championship side Nottingham Forest, Bowyer is determined to keep hold of Rhodes until at least the end of the season.
"We've had plenty of chats, of course we have," he added. "But he's starting on Wednesday against Bolton and we're looking forward to him scoring like he did last week at Sheffield Wednesday.
"It's simple. We've got 11 league games left and a Cup quarterfinal [replay] with a potential visit to Wembley.
"Why we would want to be letting any of our players go at this stage is beyond me."