MARK Hughes last night said he was confident' Benni McCarthy would still be a Blackburn player next season - despite fresh speculation linking his star striker with a summer move to Chelsea.

McCarthy has been sensational for Rovers this term, and he underlined his value to the club once again yesterday when he scored his 24th goal of the season in the 3-3 draw with Reading - a result which ensured Hughes' side qualified for the Intertoto Cup.

That kind of red-hot goal-scoring form has inevitably alerted some of Rovers' rivals to McCarthy's abilities, and a story in one of the weekend tabloids even quoted the player as saying if a side in the Champions League came calling this summer it would be hard to resist.

Hughes, however, believes the player's remarks were taking out of context, and he has once again reiterated his determination to hang on to the free-scoring 29-year-old, who finished the season second only to Didier Drogba in the race for the golden boot.

"I haven't had an opportunity to sit down and talk with Benni about it yet," said the Blackburn boss.

"But it is another one of those (stories) that got pulled from a Portuguese newspaper, they cherry-picked the quotes out of it, and then came up with an exclusive by Benni McCarthy.

"We've seen that happen time and time again so it's not a situation I'm going to worry about.

"The quotes were cherry-picked to make the story that they wanted. I've not seen it (the Portuguese version) in its entirety but I'm sure that wasn't the real message of the piece he was doing."

After losing one star striker in the shape of Craig Bellamy last summer, Hughes has moved to reassure Blackburn supporters that history will not repeat itself again with McCarthy.

"I am as confident as I can be he will be here next season," said the Rovers boss.

"I keep on trying to emphasise to people we are not a selling club. If I feel any player has a situation, and I always have the best interests of Blackburn Rovers and the team at heart whenever I make decisions regarding players' futures at the club, then I'll make decisions based on what I feel.

"If I allowed Benni McCarthy to leave we would be weaker.

"We couldn't do anything about Craig's situation last year. There was a clause in his contract and if people met the terms then he was free to leave.

"But that's not the case with Benni."

Fresh doubts about McCarthy's future had resurfaced after The Sun newspaper carried a story on Saturday, which quoted the player as saying: "If a club like Chelsea comes looking for you, you must seriously consider the opportunity.

"A chance to go to Chelsea - or any other Champions League team in England or Spain - would be hard to turn down."

McCarthy is said to be furious at the way his comments were reported, claiming they were taken out of context.