Derby County manager Wayne Rooney confirmed Ireland U21 international Festy Ebosele will depart to a Serie A club in the next few days.
Ebosele is out of contract at the end of the season, meaning he is free to sign a pre-contract agreement now and the Rams' boss confirmed he will exercise that option and move to Italy imminently.
He said: "Festy Ebosele will within the next week sign for a team in Italy."
While Rooney did not confirm Ebosele's destination, it is widely believed that the youngster will be joining Udinese.
With Ebosele's current deal expiring in June, Derby have been hamstrung in their attempts to keep the player due to the fact that the club is currently in administration.
And manager Rooney rued the club's current plight, commenting that he would have liked to have retained Ebosele - and that the player himself would have preferred to stay with the club.
He said: "I think there will be some anouncement next week, it is purely out of my control. I would have liked him to stay.
“I spoke to him this morning [Thursday]. I know he would have liked to have stayed but where we are at, I can’t offer him anything, the club can’t offer him anything.
“He has made a decision to look after his family and himself, which I respect, but I would have liked to have been in a position where we could have done something, but unfortunately we can’t.
“The situation we are in now is where I didn’t want the club to be. Unfortunately, we are. I can’t control that, that is above me. For the club’s future, I just hope things get sorted soon.”
Italian journalist Gianluca Di Marzio has reported that Ebosele has already undergone a medical with Udinese ahead of the proposed move.
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