Athletic are prepared to let out of favour Chris Killen go out on loan to interested clubs. The injury ravaged striker was unhappy about being dropped from the team before he damaged his hamstring a month ago. His return last year was 15 goals in 30 outings but this season he has again struggled with on-off injury.Killen is on a four-year contract which expires soon and Latics boss Ronnie Moore said, “Chris has been in to see me a couple of times. He obviously wants first-team football, which is only right, so we might be willing to let him go on loan. Chris has been unlucky because the three lads up front have all scored goals and I just haven’t found a place for him. He knows what the situation is and I haven’t left him out because I don’t rate him. It would depend how Chris felt, but we’ll discuss things again if somebody asks about him during the transfer window. What I won’t do is leave us short of strikers. I want plenty of them around the club.”
Killen had a loan spell at Port Vale before moving to Athletic and they have been following his progress ever since and have enquired several times about taking him back to Vale Park. Killen scored both goals, one a penalty, in the reserves win over Stockport County in the Manchester Senior Cup tie yesterday. The win should be enough to put the reserves into the final.