06 January 2024 , 21:15
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Manchester United are interested in signing Michael Olise and could use Aaron Wan-Bissaka to try and tempt Crystal Palace into selling.
The 22-year-old has impressed since joining Palace from Reading and was the subject of interest from Chelsea over the summer, with the Blues meeting his £35million release clause.
However, Olise ended up signing a new contract with Palace that includes a much higher clause which will become active at the end of the season. Mirror Football understands the clause is now around the £60m mark.
And the Daily Star are reporting that United are planning to offer Wan-Bissaka to Palace as part of a player-plus-cash offer for Olise. The report states that Palace are interested in bringing the defender back to Selhurst Park and United hope to use him to sweeten a potential deal for Olise.
It is claimed that the Red Devils' recent decision to trigger an option to extend Wan-Bissaka's contract for a further year was done to prevent Palace from trying to sign him cheaply this month or on a free transfer in the summer.
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Olise has been excellent for Palace this season, scoring five goals in nine games since returning from a hamstring injury in November. However, he suffered another hamstring injury in Palace's recent 3-1 win over Brentford and could be out of action for the rest of the month.
"Michael had to come off right at the end as he felt his hamstring with the last sprint he made in the game," Palace boss Roy Hodgson said last week. "We have to nurse him through and hope he comes back as quickly as possible.
United could use Aaron Wan-Bissaka as part of a deal to sign Olise (James Gill - Danehouse/Getty Images)"The next question will be how long is he out, but I can't answer that one. We're hoping this one won't be as bad as the one that put him out for six months. We don't think and hope it won't be like that.
"This has got nothing to do with the (previous injury). It's much lower down (his hamstring). It's nowhere near where he injured himself before, so it's not a recurrence.
"You've got to be more and more careful with players these days. There are longer periods of inactivity in games, because of VAR, and longer matches. We're coming off a period now where we just played three matches in a week for a couple of weeks in succession."