Lyon could be prepared to do a deal with Manchester United for midfielder Mahamadou Diarra – in part exchange for striker Ruud van Nistelrooy.
The French side are believed to want £25m for the 24-year-old from Mali but could accept a cash-plus-player deal.
“It is sure Lyon are interested in Van Nistelrooy,” club official Bernard Lacombe told the Daily Star.
“It’ll be a complicated financial deal unless we can exchange one of our players, like Diarra.”
Diarra is reportedly a United target with manager Sir Alex Ferguson seeing the midfielder as a long-term replacement for Roy Keane, who left the club by mutual consent last November.
Meanwhile, speculation continues that Van Nistelrooy’s career at Old Trafford may be over after he was left out for the final Premiership match of the season against Charlton and then banned from appearing in Keane’s testimonial against Celtic last week.
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