Leicester City manager Brendan Rodgers says a fee has been agreed with Manchester United for the sale of Harry Maguire, but the player has yet to negotiate personal terms with the Red Devils.
Rodgers was speaking to reporters following his side's pre-season friendly with Atalanta, and also claims the situation is expected to develop early next week.
“There has been contact between the two clubs, a fee has been agreed," he said, "and then it’s a case of Harry having an opportunity to speak to them to see if he can find an agreement on personal terms.
"That’s something that is of interest to him. And, then, of course, a medical. Apart from that there is not a great deal more to say.
"Probably after the weekend we will know more. But it’s clear of course the two teams have been talking and a fee has been agreed.”
Earlier today news broke that United had agreed a sum of £80 million ($97m) for the 26-year-old.
The 20-time English champions have been chasing the centre-back for the entire summer window, having called off plans to bring him to the club 12 months earlier.
But the boyhood United fan indicated some weeks ago that he was flattered by the club’s interest in him.
If the deal goes ahead, the payment will represent a world-record fee for a defender which currently stands at £75m ($91m) – the amount that Liverpool paid Southampton for Virgil van Dijk in January 2018.
Maguire was left out of Rodgers’ squad for Friday night’s friendly, and would expect to make his United debut in their Premier League opener at home to Chelsea if the deal is completed next week.
“He’s a special player and not a player that we want to lose,” continued Rodgers. “There’s still some work to do for it to go through.
“You always have to prepare for that ‘what if?’ and a club like ourselves needs to have that pipeline of players ready to be able to bring in. We have a number of options if Harry is to go, but that’s something that’s already been going on for a number of weeks.
“If it does happen, we will look at our options.”
When asked if Bournemouth’s Nathan Ake, Brighton’s Lewis Dunk or Burnley’s James Tarkowski were players that were potential replacements that had already been identified, Rodgers joked: “Plus the other 10.”