Jon Dahl Tomasson is unsure whether Blackburn Rovers could re-sign James Hill later in the January transfer window but urged the club to address their issues at centre-back.
The Lancashire Telegraph revealed that Hill is going to be recalled by Bournemouth this week with the Cherries activating a clause in his contract. That was confirmed by Tomasson, who is disappointed to be losing Hill.
The 21-year-old is settled at Ewood Park and has already played for two clubs this season, Rovers and Bournemouth, meaning he can't go anywhere else.
The main reason for the Cherries bringing him back is to cover their injury problems at the back. It is not out of the question then that if those issues were to clear up, Hill could return before the window closes.
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Tomasson was unsure how likely that scenario is but urged Rovers to make sure they add to the defence in the January transfer window. It's understood that the head coach would ideally like two centre-backs this month.
"That is the reason they are recalling James, it has been a pleasure to work with him," Tomasson said.
"He has developed a lot and done really well. They have a lot of injuries, I am not in the medical department at Bournemouth so I can't give you a good answer.
"What I can say is we lost Daniel Ayala and Ash Phillips in the summer. We got one player in, James Hill, he's gone now.
"It's a position the club needs to help the players. All the players are great players but it's the players we don't have.
"It would be great if we could add players to the squad. We lost proven goal-scorers, experience and the numbers of players used to playing at this level."
Connor O'Riordan remains a player of interest but negotiations are still ongoing with Crewe Alexandra about the structure of the deal. The defender has a 500K release clause in his contract and Rovers are still the front runners for the deal.
However, it's understood the club are keen to spread that payment due to their financial restraints, whilst Crewe are short of money themselves and want as much as possible up front.
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