BLACKBURN Rovers manager Mark Hughes today insisted Barry Ferguson can still have a major part to play in his future plans for the club - despite the events of the last few days.

Ferguson's hopes of a swift return to Rangers were dashed earlier this week when Rovers rejected a £3 million offer from the Glasgow giants for the Scotland captain.

Rangers have still not abandoned all hope of luring the 26-year-old back to Ibrox before the transfer window slams shut in a fortnight's time.

However, with Gers chairman David Murray claiming he's not prepared to up his offer, Hughes is confident of hanging onto his influential captain, for the time being at least.

"Barry Ferguson is a model professional, he's the club captain, and every time he trains he only wants to do his best," said Hughes.

"Whatever speculation surrounds him, he's never allowed that to affect his game in the past and I don't anticipate him allowing it to affect him in the future.

"There has been speculation about Barry and a return to Rangers from the first day he came to this club, so that's always been there.

"But he's very much part of the plans here and he's one of the reasons why I want to move the club forward because he's a very good player.

"We're trying to add to the quality we have here, Barry is very much a part of that and he knows that."

Hughes refused to divulge exactly what was said in a meeting between him and Ferguson earlier this week but the Rovers boss insists the £6.5 million signing is still happy at Rovers, despite reports to the contrary.

"This is a situation that people will speculate about but I've no doubt that when Barry gets over this period, there won't be a problem," said Hughes.

"He's a good professional and he'll get his head down and get on with it.

"He's in an environment that he enjoys.

"He loves the training and his day to day work down at the club is fine, so that's a big part of keeping a player happy."