Ciaran Clark has become the latest Newcastle United player to leave this summer after joining Sheffield United on loan. The defender was left out of Eddie Howe's 25-man squad earlier this year and has trained with the reserves in recent weeks.
Clark joins the Championship outfit on a season-long loan deal before his Newcastle contract expires in 2023. He joins Jeff Hendrick, Isaac Hayden and Freddie Woodman who have recently left the Magpies for second-tier clubs.
"He's played at international level, this league and the one above and also the fact he wanted to come here," Sheffield United boss Paul Heckingbottom said this week. "We weren't the only ones wanting to take him but he wanted to come to us and we say all the time how important that is. If we get that over the line it should be a good one for us."
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"We're looking to do something on loan, yeah. It's not definite but hopefully it will be pretty soon."That's exactly where it's at [medical]. We're hopeful but we're not going to talk about anything that's not happened so we'll wait but I'm expecting it.
"If we get it done I'll talk like that. He's experienced, he's got promotions out of this league. Good in both boxes and gives us balance on the left hand side with Robbo. So it ticks a lot of boxes for us."
Clark may have been ineligible in the second half of the campaign, but the defender continued to push and support those around him as he trained as if he was still available for selection. Dan Burn, who took Clark's place in the squad, went on to hail the defender for being 'nothing but professional' and 'really good around the group'.
Clark made 112 appearances for Newcastle and was the club's player of the year winner when the Magpies were promoted from the Championship as champions in 2017.
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