BLACKBURN Rovers centre-back Shane Duffy is edging closer to a £4.5m move to Championship rivals Brighton & Hove Albion.

Brighton had bids for the 24-year-old centre-back turned down earlier in the summer.

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But there have been fresh negotiations between the clubs and it is understood a fee of £4m plus add ons could see Duffy make the switch to the Seagulls before the transfer window closes on Wednesday.

The Republic of Ireland international is in the final 12 months of the three-year contract he signed after joining from Everton in September 2014.

Duffy, who headed in the winner in Tuesday’s 4-3 EFL Cup second-round home win over Crewe Alexandra after scoring two own goals and being sent off in his previous outing for the club, has turned down Rovers’ offer of a new deal.

Winger Ben Marshall, who has been the subject of a failed bid from Wolves and interest from Fulham, is also in the final year of his contract and has also shunned the club’s attempts to tie him down to fresh terms.

Asked about Duffy and Marshall, Rovers boss Owen Coyle said: “As we are getting closer to the window there might well be renewed bids for them.

“As we speak at the moment, no, I can’t say we’ve turned this down or turned that down. It’s where it is.

“Now if that changes we need to be in position that we are able to react to that or have people lined up.

“But the targets I have in mind, that’s still with the players here at the club so I’m not envisaging on this or that, because if you do that it doesn’t help anybody.

“All I’m focusing on is trying to improve the squad we’ve got and if something happens the other way we need to look at that quickly and make sure that the squad has strength in depth because when the window closes we know there are no emergency loans.”

Coyle is attempting to complete deals for a centre-back and a left-back, both of whom have Championship experience.

He is also interested in other centre-backs, including Lens’ Abdoul Ba, and earlier today completed the season-long loan signing of West Ham United attacking midfielder Martin Samuelsen.