Derby will not be following up their interest in former Norwich midfielder Mark Fotheringham.

The 25-year-old trained with the Rams last week and played 55 minutes of Saturday's pre-season friendly at Burton, but manager Nigel Clough believes he already has a strong quota of central midfielders at the club.

"I've had a chat with Mark and the problem is we've got three good players in the middle in Paul Green, Robbie Savage and Stephen Pearson - and all of them are on contract," said Clough.

"So we probably cannot pursue anything with Mark, but for a week I've never seen a trialist come in and work as hard as he has."

Derby are still weighing up the possibility of signing a young midfielder on loan from a Premier League club.