Nottingham Forest defender Joe Worrall has emerged as a summer transfer target for Norwich City, a report from a print edition of The Sun (25/04, p59) has claimed.

Having sealed promotion back to the Premier League at the first time of action earlier this month, the Canaries are now preparing for that step back into the top-flight of English football.

Now it seems as though one potential target for the Canaries ahead of the summer transfer window has emerged.

According to this latest report, Norwich are keen to add a centre back to their squad when the transfer market reopens, and Worrall is said to be a potential option to fill that role.

The centre back has made 135 appearances in all competitions for Forest since graduating from their academy back in 2016, and also had a spell on loan with Rangers during the 2018/19 campaign.

Premier League duo West Brom and Burnley are among those to have been linked with the 24-year-old recently, while reports last summer suggested that Forest's hierarchy value Worrall at somewhere in the region of £12million.

As things stand, there are just over three years remaining on Worrall's current contract with Forest, securing his future at The City Ground until the end of the 2023/24 season.

The Verdict

I do think that this would be a smart signing for Norwich to make if they can.

Recent injuries to Ben Gibson and Christoph Zimmermann have highlighted the lack of experienced options they currently have at centre back, something they are going to have to address if they are to have a chance of staying in the Premier League next season.

As a result, it does seem as though a move to bring Worrall to Carrow Road and strengthen those options could make sense, when you consider how solid he has been Forest recently.

Indeed, after several years at this level, Worrall is, at 24-years-old, at the stage of his career where he ought to be thinking about making the step up top-flight football, and this would be a decent opportunity for him to do exactly that.