MADRID, Sept. 3 (Xinhua) -- Athletic Club will possibly start its UEFA Champions League campaign with only two first-team central defenders as the club's signing of Spain international Aymeric Laporte from Al-Nassr is in danger of collapsing.
The club has been trying all summer to seal its move to bring back the 31-year-old, who began his career in the Athletic youth system, making over 220 appearances before joining Manchester City in January 2018.
It appeared on Monday that the long negotiations had finally born fruit with both the local press and La Liga confirming the move to take Laporte back to Athletic for a cost of between 10-15 million euros.
However, it now appears that the deal could fall through because although Athletic presented the relevant documents in time to La Liga and the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF), Al-Nassr failed to send its paperwork through on time.
This is important as the move has to be ratified by FIFA as it is an international transfer, and even though it is Al-Nassr that failed to send the paperwork, FIFA may deny Athletic the clearance to include the defender in its squad.
That would leave Daniel Vivian and Aitor Paredes as Athletic's only available first-team central defenders, as Yeray Alvarez has been suspended by UEFA after testing positive for a prohibited substance.
UEFA has still to confirm the length of Yeray's suspension, but even if it were to end now, the player would still need at least a month to reach match fitness. Athletic's first Champions League match will be against Arsenal on September 16.
B-team defender Jon de Luis has been included in the squad for the first three La Liga games, but he has yet to make his first team debut. ■
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