DC United manager Wayne Rooney has said the MLS club are ‘trying everything’ to extend Lewis O’Brien’s stay until the end of the USA season.
The Nottingham Forest midfielder joined the American side on loan in March after a late January deadline-day move to Blackburn Rovers fell through. O’Brien was left out of Steven Cooper’s 25-man Premier League squad for the second half of the season.
It left him looking for a club, with the British transfer window closed. A move to Washington, managed by former Derby County boss Rooney, was confirmed just under two months later.
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O’Brien has started 15 MLS games for the club, but is due to return to Forest later this month with the MLS season still going on. The campaign finishes in October, with Rooney hoping the club can keep hold of O’Brien until then.
"We're still in conversations," he told Steven Goff of the Washington Post. "It's a difficult situation because it's not in our hands. We're trying everything we can to try to keep him."
With the British transfer window now back open, O’Brien is said to be attracting interest from both Premier League and Championship clubs. Sheffield United are said to be keen, but Forest are reportedly reluctant to sanction a move to a club they could be competing with in the new season.
Speaking about his move to America, O’Brien revealed that he still has ambitions of playing in the Premier League. "Who in their right mind would turn down an opportunity to play in the Premier League? No-one,” he told BBC Sport back in May. “It is every boy's dream from the minute they say they want to play football. There are no regrets from the minute I signed until now and there never will be.
"I am really grateful to Wayne Rooney and DC United but, personally, I want to prove I can be in the Forest team and I can play in the Premier League every week. I want to be the player they signed.”
