RETURNING striker Yakubu has pledged his commitment to Blackburn Rovers after revealing that he rejected interest from QPR in January.

The Nigerian makes his comeback from a three-match ban in tomorrow's crunch clash against the West London side who were keen to sign him last month, before Neil Warnock left his job at Loftus Road.

Rovers boss Steve Kean says that interest never developed into a bid, with Yakubu insisting that he rejected out of hand any possibility of leaving Ewood Park.

“I decided not to go,” said the 29-year-old, who joined Blackburn on a three-year contract in August after falling out of favour at Everton.

“I said I don’t want to go, I want to stay here. I chose to be here.

“I don’t want to move any more. I am happy here so I didn’t go.

“Blackburn gave me the opportunity to play in the Premier League again so for me to just go and want to leave, I don’t want to do that.

“I’m lucky to be here today, they gave me the opportunity to prove myself so why do I have to leave?

“I had made the decision I didn’t want to leave, I wanted to stay here and help the team stay in the Premier League.”

Yakubu’s stance came in stark contrast to Chris Samba, who was the subject of two rejected bids from QPR after Mark Hughes replaced Warnock as boss.

Samba would later demand to be allowed to leave, also citing an interest in joining Paris Saint-Germain.

But the defender was denied an Ewood exit and Kean was similarly eager to keep hold of Yakubu.

“There weren’t any bids for him, but there was interest,” said the Rovers boss.

“But we want to keep the Yak, he’s scoring, he’s playing well and he enjoys it here so he’s going to be a big part of what we’re trying to do.

“As I said during the transfer window, there is always going to be interest in the players who are doing well for you.

“There’s no team in the world that wouldn’t want a goalscorer that’s on form. That didn’t surprise me.”

Yakubu is now hoping to show QPR what they are missing with a goal on his return, and has stressed the importance of giving something back to the fans after a 7-1 thrashing at Arsenal in their last match.

“It’s good to be back again,” he said.

“When you don’t play and you just watch, they are long days and long nights.

“It would be great to score again, but not just to score but to get the three points.

“The way we’ve been training, it was a bad week but hopefully we can turn it around on Saturday.

“I was there at Arsenal and I felt the same as the players who played. We are the same team, when we lose we lose together and we win together.

“It was a bad weekend but hopefully this weekend is going to be a good weekend for us.

“We have to give credit to the supporters, they have been really good in the last four games and we have to stick together. We need that against QPR.

“You have to give credit for them going all the way to London and we got beat by Arsenal by a big score.

“If we can make them smile in this game, that is the most important thing, to get the three points.

“It’s a big game for us, it doesn’t matter how we get the three points, we just have to win.”