Barrow AFC manager Ian Evatt could be about to bring in the defensive cover he feels he desperately needs with a loan deal for Sheffield United's Sam Graham believed to be close.

Graham is someone who is already familiar to the Bluebirds, as he trained with them during pre-season and featured in their friendlies against Workington and Lancaster City, scoring the opening goal in the latter.

If he does join, the 18-year-old son of former middleweight boxer Herol Graham would be second youngster to arrive on loan from the Blades this summer after midfielder Oliver Greaves.

Evatt, who has made bringing another centre-back in a priority this week, said: "I think we more or less have an agreement now with Sheffield United and we're just waiting to get that finished and over the line. Hopefully, that will come sooner rather than later.

"He's a very good young player, he's got experience of playing in the A-League and in League Two.

"We've had to beat off some competition from some big National League teams for his signature, so fingers crossed we can get that over the line."

Whether Graham is in the mix by tomorrow's match at Wrexham remains to be seen, but either way the Bluebirds will travel down to the Racecourse Ground in a healthy position, injury-wise.

The only player ruled out is second-choice goalkeeper Johnny Saltmer, who injured his elbow in the warm-up before AFC's pre-season friendly with Sheffield United under-23s last Saturday.

Evatt said: "We're still waiting to find out the extent of it, but he's still very sore and to be honest, it's not looking good.

"It could be his UCL ligament in his elbow, which is a similar ligament to what your ACL is in your knee and for goalkeepers that can be pretty serious.

"We're hoping it's not that, but we're fearing the worst at the moment. It just happened from him saving a shot in the warm-up and his arm bent back in a funny position."