Sheffield United loanee may get an extended stay

The Bundesliga club are resigned to not recouping the £15m they paid Olympiacos for the South African-born defender, at least not this summer.

With two years left on Retsos’s contract, sporting director Rudi Voeller is prepared to loan the 21-year-old out again in 2020-21.

“Panos needs a club that he simply plays for – in the coming season as well,” said the former Germany striker. “That is important for his career.”

Retsos’s time in the Rhineland has been dogged by persistent thigh and toe injuries which kept him out of the game from May, 2018 to December, 2019.

He was one of three heavyweight signings the Blades made from overseas at the end of January, along with £22m midfielder Sander Berge and on-loan striker Richairo Zivcovic.

The form of Chris Basham and Jack O’Connell means Retsos is yet to make his Premier League debut for the Blades, his only appearance coming as an FA Cup substitute at Reading in a holding midfield role. Zivcovic is yet to make it onto the pitch at all.

But Blades manager Chris Wilder has said he would be prepared to keep Retsos and/or Zivcovic on the basis of what they did in training alone if that was good enough to impress him.

FIFA are currently looking into regulations which will allow loans to be extended until the end of the season, no matter how long that is. English football has been suspended indefinitely because of the coronavirus pandemic.

There could be legal complications to consider but in the case of Retsos, Leverkusen and the Blades, it would not seem to suit anyone to object.

Goalkeeper Dean Henderson is on a season-long loan from Manchester United.