The rumour mill has it that his missus was at it with one of his footballing mates, apparently.

The real reason he didnt play at Sunderland is because his dad passed away on wednesday, Benni's birthday. Very harsh. Hope you are ok benni.

Tragic Birthday

And his ex girlfriend was murdered at the weekend. Rough week!! Just what we need when he's trying to get his spark back. Hope he's back soon.

Wonder if fatty will play saturday?

"They're not really happy times for me, but it's still all right," admitted the South African star.

"It's frustrating if you work hard, especially with all the rumours going on and then you don't play.

"Sunderland's interest is very much for real, and I'm looking to see in the next week what's going to happen, because you know I'm 31 in November, so sitting on the bench or not playing is not an option for me.

"If I can't make the starting line-up at Blackburn then I'm wasting time.

"Paul Ince has made his intentions clear, he doesn't want me to go, he wants me to stay, and from my point of view I respect the manager.

"I can't have any complaints – Jason was awesome at Everton, and I can't see the reason why he should be taken out of the starting line-up and obviously Roque's fantastic as well, he's scoring goals.

"Those two deserve to play, but if I can't get in the team then, yes, I would want the move."

McCarthy acknowledges his form last season was disappointing and concedes speculation linking him with his former Porto manager Jose Mourinho at Chelsea was unsettling.

"Obviously it was a distraction," he said.

"You knew you could have gone there and you end up not going and you get frustrated, and you know things aren't going as well as they could be because of all the things going on around you.

"You get dropped and then you get frustrated.

"But let's just hope we all end up happy. I end up being happy, Blackburn end up being happy, everyone in the whole circle ends up being happy."