Silva limbo remains at Leicester as Gray nears new deal

Leicester City manager Craig Shakespeare hopes for a breakthrough in the Adrien Silva transfer impasse over the next two days.

The 2015-16 Premier League champions agreed a deal with Sporting CP to bring the Portugal midfielder to the King Power Stadium during the closing hours of the transfer window, in a move worth up to €29.5million, as announced by the Primeira Liga club.

But Leicester reportedly missed the deadline by 14 seconds and the matter is now in the hands of FIFA, the Football Association and the club’s legal team.

The state of limbo remains as the Foxes prepare to travel to Huddersfield Town on Saturday and Shakespeare is keen for a resolution.

“Unfortunately, it’s still an ongoing process,” he said.

“I’d love to be in a positon to say he’s available for selection.

“But as a football department we are just waiting for the legal processes to take care of things.

“I don’t have any hold on that. I’m waiting for news, I’m waiting for an update, which hopefully I’ve got in the next 24 or 48 hours.”

#lcfc are hard at work preparing for their trip to Yorkshire to face Huddersfield Town on Saturday afternoon. #HudLei pic.twitter.com/yaBrjqwTZ3

— Leicester City (@LCFC) September 14, 2017

Shakespeare was able to give a more positive update on Demarai Gray, with the winger on the verge of signing a new contract having been linked to a host of other Premier League clubs.

“I’m aware that it’s close. It’s been ongoing for a while. The sooner that is put to bed the better for Demarai,” he said.

“We spoke before about him being an integral part of what we’re about and hopefully we can put that contract to bed.”

Close-season signings Vicente Iborra and Kelechi Iheanacho are fit to play at the weekend, with the former Manchester City striker stepping up his recovery from a toe injury by scoring for Leicester’s Under-23s against West Ham on Monday.

Left-back Christian Fuchs is a doubt after suffering what Shakespeare described as a “freak eye injury” during training, while Matty James (Achilles) will also be assessed.