Conor Coady is facing an uncertain future after failing to appear in Everton’s last 10 matches.
The centre-back is coming to the end of his season’s loan at Everton, who have an option to buy him for £4.5million from Wolves.
But Coady has not started a game since Everton’s 2-0 home defeat by Aston Villa on February 25 with boss Sean Dyche preferring the partnership of James Tarkowski and Michael Keane, who both worked for him at Burnley.
Under these circumstances it is hard to imagine Everton making the move permanent, especially if Dyche keeps them up.
Coady would then return to parent club Wolves in the summer, where he has a contract until June 2025. Former Wolves boss Bruno Lage allowed Coady, 30, to leave but he remains highly regarded at Molineux.
Yet Lage’s successor Julen Lopetegui already has four centre-backs – Craig Dawson, Max Kilman, Nathan Collins and Toti Gomes - so Coady may find it difficult to force his way back into the reckoning.
Coady was captain during the transformation of Wolves under Nuno Espirito Santo as the team went from the Championship to the Europa League quarter-finals in less than three years.
Even when Wolves struggled to maintain those standards during Nuno’s final season and in Lage’s first, Coady was still one of their most consistent performers and was a regular member of the England squad.
But with Lage opting for a four-man defence at the start of this season, Coady found himself surplus to requirements and was allowed to move to Goodison Park on a temporary basis.