Leicester plan to recall Harvey Barnes from loan spell at West Brom
Barnes’ form for West Brom earned him his first England Under-21 call up.
Leicester are planning to recall in-form Harvey Barnes from West Brom in January.
The Foxes are primed to activate the clause which will allow the attacker to return to the King Power Stadium in the New Year, Press Association Sport understands.
Barnes has scored five times in 14 games for the Baggies, who are second in the Sky Bet Championship, to earn a maiden call up to the England Under-21 squad.
He has impressed Leicester enough that they want to hand him a chance to make an impression with them in January.
The 20-year-old has been playing as a No.10 for West Brom but is a natural winger and the Foxes played wing-back Ricardo Pereira and forward James Maddison out wide in Saturday’s 2-1 defeat to Everton.
There remains a chance the Foxes could change their mind, especially with wide options of Marc Albrighton, Demarai Gray and Rachid Ghezzal, but their current intention is to bring Barnes back.
Leicester boss Claude Puel has previously been non-committal about Barnes’ immediate future.
“We will see,” Puel said earlier this month. “I am focused on my squad.
“I follow Harvey’s performances of course but in January we will see what happens.
“I am happy with his work and about the quality he puts on the pitch, and about the good way, good football for him. We will see.”
Barnes, who spent five months on loan at Barnsley last season, made his Leicester debut in their 5-0 Champions League defeat to Porto in 2016.
He has made six appearances for the Foxes and played three times in the Premier League at the end of last season.
Barnes is currently preparing for England Under-21s’ final two Euro 2019 qualifiers with Andorra on Thursday and Scotland on Tuesday.
