Nottingham Forest have been dealt a huge blow in their bid to keep Joe Worrall at The City Ground this summer.
What’s the talk?
That’s according to a report by Nottinghamshire Live, with Sarah Clapson claiming that Burnley are still interested in a move for the 24-year-old centre-back in the current transfer window, despite the Premier League side’s links with a move for Stoke City’s Nathan Collins.
According to Clapson, Sean Dyche is looking to add two new centre-backs to his options at Turf Moor this summer, and the expectation is that the Clarets will make a move for the £3.6m-rated Forest man in the coming months, regardless of what happened with Collins.
Hughton will be gutted
With it initially appearing as if Burnley’s summer interest in signing a centre-back was leaning solely towards the Stoke defender, the news that Worrall looks set to be targeted in addition to Collins is sure to leave Chris Hughton gutted.
Indeed, despite Forest’s below-par 17th place finish in the Championship last season, the former England U21 international nonetheless highly impressed for the Reds.
Over his 31 league appearances, the £10k-per-week centre-back helped his side keep 12 clean sheets, as well as making an average of 1.1 interceptions, 0.8 tackles, 4.2 clearances and winning 3.5 duels per game.
The Nottingham-born defender also posed a slight threat going forwards for the Garibaldi, scoring one goal, providing one assist and making an average of 0.3 key passes per game in the league last term.
These returns saw Worrall earn an impressive seasonal SofaScore match rating of 6.94, ranking him as Forest’s fifth-best performer in the second tier of English football.
As such, it would very much appear as if the 24-year-old, whom Steven Gerrard previously dubbed an “outstanding” defender, would remain a key player for the 62-year-old Forest manager next season, as he looks to improve on his team’s disappointing campaign last time out.
However, with Burnley still thought to be sniffing around the centre-back, whether or not Worrall will be wearing the red of Nottingham Forest next time around looks very uncertain at present. Hughton will rightly be gutted if he loses his star defender this summer.
In other news: Forest dealt transfer blow over “outstanding” £5k-p/w flop that’ll have Hughton fuming