Divock Origi has spent an entire year frozen out of the first team at AC Milan, and the former Liverpool striker is now set to rip up his contract early.
Origi left Liverpool after seven years in 2022 but has gone on to play 58 games of senior football since.
The Belgian has clocked just 1,941 minutes on the pitch during spells with parent club AC Milan and on loan at Nottingham Forest over the past three seasons.
His last outing saw him play 10 minutes for Forest in a 2-0 defeat to Everton in April 2024, finding himself frozen out of the first-team setup upon his return to Milan last summer.
Now, after an entire year training with Milan’s U23s side, Origi is negotiating an early termination of his contract.
La Gazzetta dello Sport reports that the 30-year-old will agree to a severance pay of less than half his €4 million annual wage to tear up his contract with a year remaining.
DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES - Tuesday, December 13, 2022: AC Milan's Divock Origi during the pre-match warm-up before the Dubai Super Cup 2022 match between Arsenal FC and AC Milan at the Al Maktoum Stadium. (Pic by David Rawcliffe/Propaganda)
Origi will then be available as a free agent and could join another side in the current transfer window, though it remains to be seen which clubs will be interested – in March it was claimed he had rejected a number of loan moves.
Having barely played since his departure from Liverpool three years ago it is likely that interested parties would see a deal as a calculated risk.
But Origi proved himself an exceptional finisher during his time on Merseyside and could be a useful option for sides in the top tier of European football.
It would not even be out of the question to thrust his name into the current merry-go-round of strikers being considered by Premier League clubs, including Newcastle.
2H95FTW Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp and Divock Origi celebrate after the Premier League match at Molineux Stadium, Wolverhampton. Picture date: Saturday December 4, 2021.
Speaking in a live Q&A following his resignation at Liverpool last summer, Jurgen Klopp explained his theory as to why Origi has struggled since leaving.
“It’s looks like he really functioned here and it really worked out for him here, in the role he had,” Klopp said, having largely employed Origi as a substitute.
“The reason why we see Divock in a different way is because I knew Divock before the fella from Everton, [Ramiro] Funes Mori, killed his ankle. He was incredible.
“He played, at Borussia Dortmund, a game I never saw from a striker, honestly. It was absolutely insane.
DORTMUND, GERMANY - Thursday, April 7, 2016: Liverpool's Divock Origi celebrates scoring the first goal against Borussia Dortmund during the UEFA Europa League Quarter-Final 1st Leg match at Westfalenstadion. (Pic by David Rawcliffe/Propaganda)
“Best striker in Europe and at that moment he was 19, maybe 20 – in Europe, in that game, in that specific game.
“Then things happened. You get knocked down, really bad tackle, and then he comes back for the Europa League final, he rushed it a little bit, because it was a final, he tried to get on the pitch, didn’t work out properly.
“And in a really important phase of his career, he couldn’t keep getting confidence, couldn’t learn how good he actually is.
“So we used him in the way we used him. He had a few too many injuries, unfortunately, but we still used him.”