Reports: Hartlepool United's England Under-19 international Brad Young targeted by Premier League side Leicester City after previously being linked with Chelsea

The 18-year-old is understood to have spent the past week training with The Foxes, who are now looking to secure a deal for the England under-19 international.

Reports from The Sun journalist Alan Nixon suggest Leicester, who currently sit third in the top flight, are closing in on a deal for Young.

The goalkeeper has previously trained with Chelsea and was subject to a potential six-figure transfer which failed to materialise at the back end of the 2019-20 campaign.

Young is still yet to make his competitive debut for Hartlepool but was named on the bench for the first time this season as Dave Challinor’s side beat Notts County 2-0 live on BT Sport at Victoria Park.

“He’s been away training with a Premier League side this week,” Challinor told The Mail.

"Naming Brad on the bench isn’t a reaction to us losing Ben [Killip] to injury last week even if it may seem like that. We just looked at options and if [Rhys Oates] had been involved then Brad wouldn’t have been on the bench.

"The way things worked, we’d named our five loan players so if we wanted to put Jake [Cooper] on the bench as centre-half cover then someone, potentially [Tom White], would have missed out.

"In terms of our shape, did we have any natural centre forwards we could put there, maybe. We just thought we could cover positions with what we had and I suppose be a little bit safe with the goalkeeper on the bench in a game that was a must win."

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