ROVERS have reached an agreement with Anthony Stokes to terminate the player’s contract with immediate effect.

The 28-year-old striker still had two years left to run on his deal after joining from Celtic last summer.

But having not featured so far in pre-season, and not part of Tony Mowbray’s plans, the Irishman is now free to find another club.

Stokes has been linked with a return to Scottish Premiership side Hibs throughout the summer, but also has interest from abroad.

That is despite featuring just eight times in the Championship for Rovers last season, including just once under Mowbray.

Stokes’ time at Ewood Park has been blighted by off-field issues, including being handed a suspended jail sentence in February for an assault in a Dublin nightclub in 2013, pre-dating his arrival at the club.

He scored on his Rovers debut, a 4-1 defeat to Norwich on the opening day of last season, and followed that up with two more in the EFL Cup win at Mansfield four days later.

However, just a solitary strike in the Checkatrade Trophy would follow, with Stokes spending much of his time at the club playing for the Under-23s.

His last first-team outing came as a substitute in the 1-0 win at Nottingham Forest on Good Friday, however, he wasn't included in any of the opening three pre-season friendlies, and didn’t travel to Austria for the club’s training camp as his departure was being finalised.