Sheffield United have opened talks with Fulham over extending Toni Kallio’s loan.

Blades boss Kevin Blackwell is keen to keep the Finnish defender at Brammall Lane for more than the initial month agreed between the sides, but concedes that Fulham’s continued participation in the Europa League might scupper his chances.

We are currently speaking to Roy Hodgson about extending the deal because we cannot take out a new one in the New Year. Toni has had a stop-start period with us – through no fault of his own – but he came back into the side at QPR and did really well for us.

With Fulham having qualified for the Europa League knockout stages and the FA Cup starting shortly, it might mean that Roy wants to make sure that he has a larger squad available.

Blackwell’s not wrong about him doing well at QPR – look at how majestically he strolls through the Rangers defence to set up the equaliser.