Town and Portsmouth are being linked with former Manchester United midfielder Quinton Fortune. The 31-year-old has been without a club since leaving Bolton a year ago.

The South African is said to be fully fit these days after significant injury problems and was due to join Blackburn until manager Mark Hughes left for Manchester City. A trial spell with Sunderland was also recently reported.

Fortune, who has won 53 full international caps scoring one goal and played in the 1998 and 2002 World Cups, came to England to join Tottenham's youth set-up as a 14-year-old but moved on to Atlético Madrid in Spain after having trouble gaining a work permit in the UK.

Manchester United signed the Cape Town-born midfielder in 1999 for £1.5 million as cover for Ryan Giggs and he went on to make 88 starts and 38 sub appearances for the Red Devils, scoring 10 goals.

The 5ft 11in tall left-sided winger, occasional full-back or central midfielder left Old Trafford for Bolton on a free transfer in the summer of 2006/07 but spent only a year at the Reebok Stadium and made only six starts and one sub appearance due to injury.

A left midfielder certainly appears to be on Jim Magilton's summer shopping list with a £1 million fee for Southampton's Rudi Skácel having been agreed. The move for the Czech international had appeared to have stalled but yesterday Saints boss Jan Poortvliet said the former Hearts man was in "final negotiations” with the Blues.

However, if the Skácel move does break down, as appeared to be the case earlier in the week, then Fortune may be amongst Magilton's alternative options.

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