Luke Ayling is set to end a seven-and-a-half-year stay at Leeds United with a loan move to Championship rivals Middlesbrough.
The long-serving right-back, a crowd favourite and a key figure in Leeds’ promotion to the Premier League in 2020, has agreed to join Middlesbrough for the rest of the season, taking him to the end of his contract at Elland Road.
Ayling, 32, is due to undergo a medical on Teesside this morning having fallen out of Leeds’ first-team plans under Daniel Farke.
Farke used the ex-Arsenal defender in the early stages of United’s Championship term but last fielded him in a league fixture away at Leicester City on November 3, preferring to rely on other options at right-back.
Ayling appeared as a substitute for the closing minutes of Sunday’s FA Cup win over Peterborough United in what looks to have been his last appearance for United. He played a total of 268 times for Leeds after signing from Bristol City for £200,000 in 2016.
His deal at Elland Road is into its final year and Leeds and Farke are understood to have decided against offering him an extension before Christmas.
Ayling received a warm reception from the away end after Sunday’s victory and speaking later, Farke said: “What he has done for this club and what he has done for this group is amazing.
“I know at the moment quite often the goal-scorers or assisters, or the younger guys who are in the spotlight, are more or less the main focus and (the crowd) sing their names, but I’m a bit old-fashioned. I would sing ‘Luke, Luke, Luke’ for the whole 90 minutes.
“It’s not a miracle everyone is celebrating him that much and if you get such a reception, although you haven’t played that much in recent weeks or also today you come in just for 20 minutes, I would be also emotionally touched, if I’m honest, as a player.”
GO DEEPER
Luke Ayling: ‘I was told I wasn’t quick or strong enough. To be even mentioned by Southgate was surreal’
(George Wood/Getty Images)
