“I’ve been watching the US team and seen how well they have done recently and he’s been an integral part of that,” said the centre-back.

“He’s a good player and hopefully he’ll add some quality to the team. We’ve not got that many players at the moment, so he’s another body with some quality in there.

“There’s a few of us who have been out for a while now, and hopefully if we can all get back it will be like having some new players and we can kick on in the league.”

Donovan has been brought in to bolster a strikeforce that will be missing Yakubu through African Cup of Nations duty with Nigeria throughout January.

And the forward is hopeful of increasing his goal tally before linking up with his international team-mates in the New Year.

“I would like to help the team a little bit before I go like I did last time with those cup goals,” said Yakubu.

“At the moment we are struggling and it’s very up and down, but when we get some of the injured players back and start winning again we’ll be okay.

“We need to start winning and picking up more points.”