Derby County are said to be willing to allow their captain Tom Lawrence leave the club on a free transfer at the turn of the new year, as per a recent report by the Daily Mail.
The midfielder is one of the club's highest earners at the time of writing and it appears that the Rams would be willing to let him go in order to trim down their wage bill.
It is also suggested in the report that the likes of West Brom, Stoke City, Bournemouth and Swansea City have all expressed an interest in signing the former Manchester United man in January.
Derby will now look for a solution that suits all parties when the winter window opens in just over a months time.
Here, we take a look at TWO knock-on effects at Derby if Lawrence was to depart Pride Park for pastures new...
New captain needed
Lawrence has never really been a natural choice to be captain, however if he did indeed leave the club, Wayne Rooney would need to assign the role to someone else.
There are plenty of experienced players within their ranks to choose from as the new skipper, and it could well be the case that someone like Curtis Davies or Phil Jagielka takes it on.
Derby are in need of someone to step up and take ownership of the squad's actions, so it is a big role to fill for anyone who is made captain.
Given that they are now pretty much relegated following the recent points deduction, it will be hard to keep some of the players motivated on the task in hand.
Allows room for new signings
Freeing up the type of wages that Lawrence is on will help Derby to seriously look to bring in new players in the long run.
Of course this is all dependant on an expected takeover of the club going through, but surely Rooney will be looking to plan for his captain's probable departure.
Derby are in a bit of a sticky situation as realistically speaking they have to start planning for life in League One, which could affect their chances of bringing in certain players.
The main thing is that they now know what their fate is with regards to the deductions, which means they can now focus on other important matters such as getting the takeover completed.