SAM Allardyce has told his Blackburn Rovers players ‘you drop yourselves’ as he relishes the luxury of having his biggest choice of options in his nine-month reign.

The boss welcomes back a number of Rovers’ walking wounded into the squad for this afternoon’s visit of Wolverhampton Wanderers and admits he is excited about the future at Ewood Park.

Allardyce’s time in charge at Rovers has been haunted by a string of injuries but now, with just Benni McCarthy (ankle) and Steven Nzonzi (foot) slight injury doubts, he has warned his players ‘the competition is really on’.

He said: “It will be the biggest squad I have available to me, which is a good thing. Recently, particularly against West Ham, it took about five minutes to pick the team because there was no one else that was going to challenge too much to be in the starting 11.

“Generally I don’t drop players, the players drop themselves. When we assess the performances, particularly by ProZone, on every stat you can get the overall average and find out if he is falling below his average and if he is that is him deselecting himself.

“If it becomes tactical for one reason or another then that becomes more difficult to get the player to understand. He won’t accept it is tactical and I understand that.

“It is a decision you have to make as a manager though and if you have made that decision you hope it is right or else they will be knocking on your door again saying ‘told you so’.”

Long-term absentees Brett Emerton and Steven Reid are available for selection again, although Allardyce admits they may be lacking in match sharpness, while El-Hadji Diouf, Ryan Nelsen and Franco Di Santo are also back to fitness.

Former Real Madrid defender Salgado is available for his Ewood Park debut for the first time but may have to wait.