Santa Cruz top scored for Blackburn last season with 22 goals
Blackburn boss Sam Allardyce insists Roque Santa Cruz will play no part in Paraguay's World Cup qualifiers in late March despite his call up.
Paraguay coach Gerardo Martino named Santa Cruz in his squad to face Uruguay and Ecuador even though the 27-year-old is struggling with a knee injury.
Martino maintains he wants the national squad's medical staff to assess him.
But Allardyce said: "We will tell them he is not capable of travelling. He can not play before April at the earliest."
Santa Cruz is currently out of action because of tendonitis - inflamed tendons - in his knee.
Paraguay's World Cup qualifiers fall on 28 and 31 of March and, although he admitted he is not confident of Santa Cruz taking part, Martino is keen to check the striker's availability and fitness himself.
"The doctor and the kinesiologist (expert in human movement) have travelled to England to talk to the club doctor and the player, our main goal is how to continue in the future," he said.
Allardyce said he would inform them of Santa Cruz's problems on their arrival.
"They are due to pay a visit, and we will have the discussion, but Roque is not fit to play any game of football until, at the very, very earliest, against Tottenham (first weekend in April)," said the Rovers boss.
"It could be beyond that, so I can't see him going to Paraguay because he is not capable of playing.
"I think he'll be back this season. He is responding to treatment, but a lot slower than we expected."
Santa Cruz had already cast doubt on his ability to boost Blackburn's battle against relegation this season.
"It is a tendonitis I've been carrying for a long time and I have already played some matches with pain," the player told the Puro Futbol radio program. "I gave up training two weeks ago and not training does not help me physically.
"It is a difficult situation and we'll have a talk with the medical staff."
Rovers are currently 15th in the Premier League but only one point above the relegation zone.
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