Manchester United defender Eric Bailly is close to completing a loan move to Marseille as the Ivorian seeks more game time.
The 28-year-old started just three Premier League matches last season as Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and then Ralf Rangnick favoured Harry Maguire, Raphael Varane and Victor Lindelof in central defence.
Bailly has played no part in United’s opening two matches of the current season under new manager Erik ten Hag.
With Lisandro Martinez coming in from Ajax over the summer, Bailly was pushed even further down the pecking order at Old Trafford.
Accordingly, he will move on loan to Ligue 1 club Marseille. United initially wanted to sell Bailly this summer but have now allowed him to leave on a temporary basis.
Bailly has made 113 appearances in total for United since he arrived from Villarreal in a £30million deal just as Jose Mourinho took over in 2016.
A regular in his first season, Bailly gradually fell out of favour amid a series of managerial changes and also suffered injury issues which restricted his game time.
Ten Hag has opted for a central defensive pairing of Maguire and Martinez in the opening matches of the season.
However, both of these have ended in defeat for United, who sit second bottom of the Premier League table.
They lost 2-1 at home to Brighton in their season opener before suffering a 4-0 thrashing at the hands of Brentford last weekend.
The Reds host Liverpool in their third league fixture on Monday evening.