Fulham have submitted an offer for Sassuolo centre back Marlon, according to reports from Italy this afternoon.

Sassuolo director Giovanni Carnevali told Sky Sport Italia:

‘We had an offer from Fulham, an important one, so we are evaluating it and the negotiations are in progress. We’ll see over the next couple of days if we can conclude them’.

The 25 year-old defender has been left on the pitch for Napoli’s Serie A opener against Cagliari. The Italian press believe Fulham’s offer to around £14m, although the Brazilian’s former club would be due half of the transfer fee as part of the deal that took Marlon to Italy two summers ago.

The 6ft centre half, who came through the Fluminense youth academy, made three senior appearances at the Nou Camp and was loaned to French side Nice for the 2017/18 season. He has played 41 times in two seasons with Sassuolo, scoring one goal. Fulham’s need for reinforcements in central defence was underlined by their dreadful defending in a 4-3 defeat at Leeds yesterday, which followed a 3-0 loss at the hands of Arsenal on the opening day of the season.