STEVE Kean believes the pressure is on Roque Santa Cruz to deliver at Ewood Park as he looks to prove he is a £17million striker.

The 29-year-old Paraguayan returned to Rovers on loan until the end of the season from Manchester City yesterday after a nightmare last 18 months at Eastlands.

A combination of injury and a plethora of new signings at City has restricted Santa Cruz to just six Premier League starts since signing from Rovers in July 2009, making just one league substitute appearance this campaign.

Now, back at Ewood, Kean is confident Santa Cruz can prove some of his doubters wrong but knows more is expected from him than when he arrived in England as something of an unknown quantity from Bayern Munich back in 2007.

Kean said: “Probably there is more expectation on him now. People will expect him to deliver and he will have to live up to that.

“I think that is good because it gives a positive pressure.

“People will be putting him in that bracket and saying he is a £17million striker and expecting him to deliver whereas the pressure was probably off him first time round.

“I think that is good to get him on his toes. He is certainly looking forward to coming back here. When he walked in here in the morning he was laughing and joking, looking forward to getting the medical out of the way and getting out onto the grass.

“I think not only his aerial ability but he has class on the ground and can link players really well. If we can get players of that ilk coming in and turning down clubs from this country and abroad then that is fantastic.”

Kean also believes Santa Cruz’s Ewood Park past can work in their favour with the club’s medical staff already having a close relationship with the striker.

He said: “It is an exciting signing. I think as well he knows Dr Batty and Dave Fevre and knows they can maintain any type of medical problem he has had in the past. He will be confident they can do injury prevention that has worked for him before.

“Hopefully he sees we are looking forward and that there is an excitement about the place. The pedigree of the players we are trying to bring in is from clubs in the past we wouldn't have been able to afford.

“That shows there is ambition, we want to move forward and add quality of players who can take us to another level.”