Leicester City set to retain high-profile player leaving QPR in transfer limbo ahead of 11pm | OneFootball

Wilfried Ndidi will be staying with Leicester City, despite Premier League interest in the player

The 26-year-old will be staying in the Championship, according to a report from Darren Witcoop. The journalist has said that he, and a few others, are now going to be staying with the Foxes for the foreseeable future.

It was reported by Fabrizio Romano that Nottingham Forest had presented an opening proposal to the club to sign Ndidi. However, Forest have gone in a different direction with their pursuit of a defensive-minded midfielder.

Witcoop also said that the collapsed move now means QPR's Ilias Chair will not be moving to Leicester. But he also said that there is still the possibility of another league rival getting the R's winger. That club have been revealed to the Leeds United by Witcoop, although QPR are reluctant to lose their key man so close to the 11pm deadline - it's noted, though, that Joe Gelhardt could be used as something of a makeweight to push that through.

The Nigerian international has less than a year remaining on his contract.

Why is Ndidi staying at Leicester?

His potential Premier League suitors, ultimately, went for a different option. Forest were in talks for both him and PSV's Ibrahim Sangare. They started to push on with talks for the 25-year-old but they were still keeping the Championship player as an open option.

Earlier today, it was revealed, by Romano, that the Nottinghamshire-based club had struck a deal with the Dutch club to sign the Ivorian international for a €35 million (just under £30 million) - a deal which includes add-ons.

It was initially thought to be worth a few million Euros more than that. But Forest got it down to €35 million.

Leicester fans will already be aware of this, but he's not been recently operating at the heights that he was once capable of.

Three seasons a go he was making 3.7 tackles and 2.3 interceptions per game. Throughout last season, those numbers were quite significantly down to 2.3 tackles and 1.4 interceptions per game.

The time when he was performing so well was when the team was also performing so well. He was a big driver of success over those years when they just barely missed out on the Champions League spots. It is certainly odd to think of the position they were in then and the position that they find themselves in now.

But now, in the Championship, he isn't required to carry so much of the midfield load. The Foxes have brought in Harry Winks to add to a very decent Championship midfield of the Nigerian international, Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall and Boubakary Soumare.

He can provide that top-level quality, that everyone knows he has, in moments, when needed; rather than it being needed all the time as it was over the last couple of years.

He's got years of Premier League experience to bring to the table, and he's been a consistent figure in their dressing room throughout a lot of the club's success.

His contract situation means they aren't going to be able to get much, if anything, for him in January, if they're looking to move him on. But he's been one of their best players over the last half decade, so keeping him might not be all that bad.