Fulham are hoping to complete the capture of Sporting Lisbon’s defensive midfielder Bruno Paz next week, according to reports in Portugal.

The 23 year-old, who has seen his Sporting career disrupted by a succession of untimely injuries, would be a welcome recruit at Craven Cottage with Marco Silva short on holding midfielders as first choice Harrison Reed continues to battle an ankle problem. Negotiations between Fulham and Sporting Lisbon are at an advanced stage, Portuguese paper Record claims, with the Lions apparently willing to let Paz leave on a free transfer.

Sporting do want a buy-back clause of around £2.2m included in any deal should they waive their right to a transfer fee – something the Championship club are apparently resisting at present, but the Whites are agreeable to offering the Lions a sell-on clause. The Barreiro-born midfielder, who can also operate at right back or on the right side of midfield, has made most of his recent appearances for Sporting’s B side in the Portuguese second division, having made his sole senior appearance as a substitute in the Europa League back in 2018.

Paz was a highly-rated Portuguese youth prospect who was part of the under-19 squad that finished runners up to England in the 2017 European Championship in Georgia. He has previously been linked with a move to Nottingham Forest and Reading and would be a cheap option to potentially solve Silva’s shortage of options in the engine room before the closure of the transfer window.