League One trio Bristol Rovers, Huddersfield Town and Brighton are all keen to sign Watford striker Nathan Ellington after his loan spell at Skoda Xanthi in Greece expires on New Years Day

Ellington has scored 7 times in 17 games in the Greek Super League but his successful loan spell in Europe will not have any affect on his chances of football at parent club.

Watford boss Malky Mackay recently spoke about Ellington’s impending return, the club’s highest earner who has not played for ‘The Hornets‘ for 12 months:

“Nathan is not someone who is going to be featuring in my plans at all.

“At the end of the day, every footballer wants to play and Nathan is no different. He doesn’t want to be sitting here for the next six months until the end of his contract just turning up for training.

“You want to achieve something at the end of the week for your hard work in training and he is no different, so it is something that is ongoing, in terms of us trying to find him something.”

Bristol Rovers are known to have already had talks with Watford about a possible return of the 29-year-old who started out in professional football at The Memorial Stadium after Ian Holloway signed him from non-league Walton and Hersham.

Huddersfield and Brighton may be more attractive moves for Ellington on paper, but could an emotional attachment for a club where he scored 44 goals in 138 appearances, 43 of which were from the substitutes bench, swing a loan move in ‘The Pirates’ favour as they battle to move away from the drop zone position that they occupy.