Andre Bikey joined the Clarets from Reading for an undisclosed fee in August, 2009 and signed a three-year deal at Turf Moor.

Bikey went on to start 26 games in the Barclays Premier League in his first season for the Clarets, scoring one of the goals of the season in an autumn win over Birmingham City.

However, it was a mixed campaign for the defender who was asked to play in central midfield for long stretches of the season and lost his starting place over the closing couple of months.

Bikey arrived in English football in April 2007 when he joined Reading on loan from Lokomotiv Moscow.

The Royals then paid in excess of £1m to make the deal permanent as went on to make over 70 appearances for the Berkshire outfit.

A powerful central defender, Bikey played for Cameroon in the summer 2008 Olympics in Beijing, and has twice appeared in the African Cup of Nations earlier in the year.

He had hoped to be selected for the 2010 World Cup finals in South Africa but missed out on a place in Paul Le Guen's squad.

Bikey started his career as a youngster at Espanyol but didn't make a first-team appearance for the Spanish side.

He moved on to Shinnik Yaroslavl in Russia, catching the eye of Lokomotiv Moscow for whom he signed in July 2005.