Defender Mattie Pollock is waiting on Watford after handing in a transfer request earlier this week.

However, despite online reports suggesting a deal has already been done, The Watford Observer understands that is wide of the mark.

While there has been interest, nothing has been signed with any club.

The 22-year-old has played just 105 minutes of football for the Hornets this season, spread across eight substitute appearances.

He has come off the bench in three of the last seven games, but the longest of those was 23 minutes in the 5-1 win at Preston.

With two years left on his contract but no sign of getting a more sustained spell in the team, Pollock has clearly asked to leave rather than wait to see what the rest of the January transfer window brings for him.

A £300,000 purchase from Grimsby Town in July 2021, Pollock has only ever played 13 times for Watford since and just three of those have been as a starter.

His only Championship start came in a miserable 3-0 defeat away at Millwall last season, a game where the defender said in an interview with the Watford Observer that he hadn’t acquitted himself as he would have wished.

He also admitted that game at The Den “was probably the worst day of my life in football so far”.

Pollock added at the time: “It couldn’t have gone any worse really. I’d dreamt of playing for Watford in the league.

“I made a mistake early on, and I think the fans judged me off that, which I think is a little bit unfair because I know I can – and I have – played a lot better than that.”

It’s understood a number of clubs in League One and at least one from the Championship have shown interest in the defender, while a return to Scotland – where he had a highly successful loan spell with Aberdeen – could be on the cards, and there are also reports of a potential move to one of three different countries in Europe.

Pollock played 15 times for Aberdeen as they finished third in the Scottish Premier League last season, and helped earn eight clean sheets in that time including a 2-0 win over Rangers.

He spent the 21/22 campaign on loan at League One side Cheltenham Town, playing 39 times and won the club’s Young Player of the Season award.

Born in Surrey but raised in Middlesbrough, Pollock is the son of former Boro, Man City and Bolton midfielder Jamie Pollock.

With Valerien Ismael making no secret of the fact he’d like to add a left-footed central defender to his squad, and Wes Hoedt, Ryan Porteous and Francisco Sierralta all seemingly ahead of him, Pollock’s desire to leave for first-team football would create a gap in the streamlined squad that would presumably be filled with a left-footed replacement.