EWOOD new boy Hakan Sukur today vowed to put aside his fitness problems and prove the critics wrong by making a success of his move to Blackburn Rovers.

The 31-year-old striker is currently pulling out all the stops in a bid to be fit to make his Rovers debut as soon as possible.

And the Turkish international is desperate to show he can be a big hit in the Premiership after coming in for fierce criticism following the World Cup.

When Sukur signed on a free last week, manager Graeme Souness said it would take the player at least a fortnight to get fit after several months of inactivity following his release from Parma.

But the former Inter Milan star is continuing to make excellent progress in training and he insists the hernia problem he has suffered from since the World Cup will not prevent him from being successful in England.

"There is no problem with the injury. I am only short of training and match fitness," said Sukur.

"I will soon be ready and I'll show the real Hakan Sukur to those who thought that Hakan Sukur was finished.

"The king is not dead yet."

Souness does not expect Sukur to be fit enough to play any part against Everton on Saturday.

But he may have an outside chance of being involved in next week's Worthington Cup clash with Wigan or failing that, the visit of Manchester United on Sunday week.

"We said between two and three weeks and we've not changed our view on that," said Souness.

"He's coming along very nicely and we are happy with the progress he is making.

"He's training with the rest of the players in the morning and he's also staying behind for one-to-one sessions with Dave Fevre in the afternoons.

"The Wigan game might be a bit early but he could have a good chance of being ready for the Manchester United game."