A Town representative will meet with Málaga in Spain today to negotiate the permanent signing of central defender César Navas, according to Spanish reports.

The Blues' interest in the 6ft 4in tall defender had appeared to have cooled in the weeks since he fractured the third metatarsal of his right foot while on trial with Town, but the move now appears to be back on.

Navas impressed the Portman Road management during his trial spell, which was ended early by the injury sustained in the pre-season game at Crawley. The former Real Madrid B player will be sidelined for another four weeks, but has no history of foot injuries and is keen to move to England.

Málaga are eager to offload Navas's La Liga-sized wages and sent him out on loan to Gimnàstic de Tarragona last season, where he recorded an unfortunate double of a second successive relegation from the Spanish top flight, Málaga having been demoted a year earlier.

With a year remaining on his Málaga contract, a fee of €500,000 (£336,000) was recently mentioned as a possible fee for the 27-year-old, although prior to the injury Málaga wanted €1 million (£670,000) for the Madrid-born defender.

Town have looked at other centre-halves in recent weeks, including a trip to the Czech Republic apparently to watch Sparta Prague's Jan Simunek, but it appears Navas is still the Blues' management's preferred option.

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