Structure of Nottingham Forest deal offers Blackburn hope of future Lewis O'Brien transfer: Opinion | OneFootball

Lewis O'Brien finally got some resolution concerning his future this week as his loan move to MLS club DC United was confirmed.

The midfielder will head across to the United States and link up with Wayne Rooney's squad but the structure of the deal means Blackburn Rovers may get another chance to land the 24-year-old in the summer.

O'Brien enjoyed a fantastic season for Huddersfield Town in 2021/22 and was snapped up by newly-promoted Nottingham Forest as a result.

But having fallen down the pecking order due to the sheer volume of new recruits at The City Ground, the Englishman looked set to head back to the Championship late in the winter window.

Rovers won the race for him but failed to get their paperwork completed before the 11pm deadline on the 31st of January, which meant the EFL refused to ratify the transfer.

Try as they might, the Ewood Park outfit were unable to overturn that decision despite multiple appeal attempts while O'Brien had been left out of Forest's Premier League squad as they expected him to go out on loan, which meant he faced months in the reserves if an alternative club could not be found.

Luckily, the MLS's transfer window was still open and a deal has been agreed for him to sign for DC United. There were previous concerns that due to the American season running from spring to autumn/winter, heading across the Atlantic would mean Blackburn were unable to return for him in the summer window but it appears that is not necessarily the case.

DC United have revealed that O'Brien's loan deal will run through until the 16th of July, which would mean that Rovers could make a move for him in the summer transfer window once he's returned to Forest.

That said, his return to The City Ground will be dependent on Rooney and co. deciding against triggering the option to buy that has been included in the loan deal.

Were DC United to opt against a permanent move and Forest to stay up this season, there could certainly be a situation where the East Midlands club are looking to shift the midfielder again ahead of the start of the 2023/24 campaign.

Whether they'll consider Blackburn as a destination after what happened last time and whether financially it's a deal that could work for the Championship outfit remains to be seen but the structure of O'Brien's loan means that there is still hope he could make the move to Ewood Park in the future.