Fitness concerns could stop Huddersfield Town's Terence Kongolo joining Sheffield United

Manager Chris Wilder admitted last week he had inquired about the 26-year-old Huddersfield Town defender as an option to replace Jack O'Connell, who is set to miss the next six months after knee surgery.

Kongolo has not played for the Terriers since November after being frozen out by then-manager Danny Cowley, or for anyone since breaking his foot making his debut on loan at Fulham in January. He underwent an operation to have metalwork put into the foot.

Now the Daily Mail are reporting that having assessed medical tests on Kongolo, the Blades are concerned about when he will return to full fitness.

Football medicals are usually portrayed as pass/fails affairs but in fact they are just an assessment of the player's fitness to help the buying club to decide if they want to proceed.

Former Liverpool defender Jack Robinson, signed in January, has been deputising for O'Connell since the decision to send him under the knife but Wilder is anxious to have competition for the position. The versatile Ethan Ampadu could play there, but as a right-footer, he would not be ideally suited to the highly-specialised overlapping centre-back role O'Connell plays.

Kongolo's signature would not have to be completed by 11pm tonight as extra time is allowed to sign players from the Football League but there would just be 11 further days to allay any concerns about his fitness before all trading for 2020 comes to a close.

Fulham are also thought to be interested in bringing Kongolo back to Craven Cottage, and there is always the possibility they could take the plunge.

Preston North End's Ben Davies had been mentioned as a possible alternative and he too would have the advantage that he could be signed any time up to 5pm on October 16.