Millwall exit potentially looms as deadline approaches | OneFootball

Wes Harding is free to leave South London today

Millwall centre-back Wes Harding is reportedly free to leave the Lions on deadline day if he can find an appropriate suitor before the transfer window slams shut tonight.

Harding has only spent a year in South London after joining from Rotherham United last summer, and he appeared 26 times in all competitions in his debut campaign at the club, but is yet to feature in a league game so far this season and could depart today.

Harding exit latest at Millwall

South London Press sports editor Richard Cawley has stated that the 27-year-old is now available for transfer, but there is no guarantee that he will depart The Den before the deadline.

He also claims that the clubs thought to be interested earlier in the window may have already signed reinforcements at centre-back, so it could leave Harding at a loose end unless a club approaches Milwall for his signature in the coming hours.

Cawley only reported three days ago that the Lions were not prepared to let Harding leave this summer, but that view has clearly now changed for the club due to other circumstances.

He had previously been linked with a move to newly-promoted League One side Wrexham earlier in the transfer window, but the Red Dragons have since brought in Lewis Brunt and Dan Scarr from Leicester City and Plymouth Argyle respectively.

Harding's current contract situation with the Lions is unclear, but it is unlikely that he only signed a one-year deal last summer after being so impressive in the second-tier with Rotherham United, so either a loan or permanent move away from South London could be possible today.

A Championship-hardened defender, Harding arrived at The Den last summer in the hope that he could become a key part of Gary Rowett's backline, but things have not gone as planned for him or the club since then, and it seems as if Neil Harris is happy to see him depart with incomings likely.

The 27-year-old did not make a single league appearance after Harris' February arrival in South London last season, and was not even named in the matchday squad in seven of the club's final 14 games of the season.

It has been made overtly clear that, despite previous reports of the club wanting him to stay, he is not in the Lions' plans for the campaign ahead, and so is now free to leave.

Harding will surely not be short of suitors though, even with such little time in the window left, with his years of EFL experience at Birmingham City, Rotherham and Millwall likely to make him an attractive proposition for lower second-tier or high third-tier sides.