The Paraguay international completed a long-anticipated transfer to Manchester City on Monday having expressed his desire to leave Ewood Park in December.

Santa Cruz struggled with injury last season and played just 11 matches in 2009, being sidelined completely from early March. It was in stark contrast to his maiden campaign with Rovers the previous year when he scored 23 goals.

not concerned

The sale of striker Matt Derbyshire to Olympiakos on Wednesday means manager Sam Allardyce needs to strengthen his attacking options but Emerton is not concerned.

"Roque has been fantastic for Blackburn Rovers," said the Australia midfielder, who is confident of being fit for the start of the season having ruptured a cruciate knee ligament in January.

"He is a great player and a great guy and we will miss him but these things happen in football, players come and players go. If you look at how the team finished last season, they did it without the injured Roque and without Matt Derbyshire. You also had players like myself, Steven Reid and David Dunn who were injured."