BLACKBURN Rovers have this afternoon announced their pre-season trip to India has been called off following safety concerns.

Rovers were due to fly to Mumbai on Thursday to play an exhibition match and meet owners Venky's 160km away in Pune.

But safety fears were raised in the wake of last week’s bomb attacks in Mumbai which killed 20 people, while several Rovers players were understood to be concerned about the trip.

Manager Steve Kean denied there had been concerns expressed by players but said the decision to put the trip back to the international break in October was a sensible one in the circumstances.

"The trip is not cancelled, it is postponed to another date because of the activity out there," he said.

"The board had a meeting with the owners and spoke and decided we had to go through a number of different checks and that trip will now take place at the beginning of October.

"The players are looking for guidance and as long as everything was explained to them they were fine as a group.

"I think the owners would have been disappointed if it was totally finished but the fact it has been put back softens the disappointment."

A joint statement from the club and the owners said: "Safety is always our top priority and after detailed discussions with our security and legal advisors we have been left with no option other than to postpone.

"While everyone is obviously disappointed, we all accept the circumstances and the reasoning.

"We are now looking forward to the trip to India in a few weeks' time."