Valencia captain Dani Parejo has urged the club to sign a central defender this month following a long-term injury to captain Ezequiel Garay.
Garay suffered a ruptured ACL earlier this month and will not feature again this season, with Los Che now holding the option to sign an emergency central defender in his place.
The obscure Spanish football rule was brought into the headlines earlier this month when Barcelona controversially signed striker Martin Braithwaite from Leganes.
The Catalan giants triggered the player’s €18m release clause earlier this month, leaving Lega unable to refuse the sale and also without the possibility of signing a replacement.
“We have had a lot of injuries, especially the particularly serious one to Garay,” Parejo said, as reported by Super Deporte.
“There is the possibility that the club sign another defender because of the rules and it’s something we should do, especially now with (Eliaquim) Mangala now another injury.
“We have a match every three days and we have so many injuries, particularly in this area, so we should act.”
A report in Diario AS last week said Los Che have requested to make the emergency signing of Real Madrid defender Javi Sanchez.
The report states that Real Valladolid – the club at which the central defender is on a season-long loan arrangement – have already given their approval for the move.
Sanchez, 22, is on a season-long loan deal at Valladolid but has featured just once for the club and has not played a minute in La Liga all season.
Valencia intend to initially loan then player and then to include a purchase option at the end of the season, giving Madrid the possibility of including a repurchase option for the future.
However, Madrid are said to want the deal to be a loan deal without any future option for Valencia as they value the player highly.
Valencia are on the brink of their Financial Fair Play limitations so require this to be a low-cost loan deal and if it does not come to fruition, the report says they may sign a player from the Segunda.
