Saudi Pro League side Al-Hilal are lining up a January move for Man Utd captain Bruno Fernandes, according to reports.

The Red Devils have been struggling in recent weeks with a 2-0 loss to Chelsea their third defeat on the bounce in all competitions and their ninth match without a win.

That has piled pressure on Michael Carrick, who has been given more time to turn around results, but Man Utd captain Fernandes didn’t help his manager’s cause recently by criticising his tactics after their 4-1 loss to Como in the Champions League.

Fernandes was heavily criticised for his comments with many former players and pundits questioning his role as captain and tipping him for a move away from Man Utd in the next couple of transfer windows.

And now Italian website Tuttomercatoweb have revealed that Saudi Pro League side Al-Hilal, who have previously been credited with interest in Fernandes, are ‘ready to make a bid’ for the Portugal international in January.

It is understood that the bid could be as high as €55m (£46m) with Fernandes’ own performances dropping this season after helping Man Utd to a third-placed finish in the Premier League last term.

Football Insider claim that Man Utd are ‘increasingly likely to lose’ Fernandes in the summer transfer window to Serie A giants AC Milan.

‘His days at Man Utd are numbered from now on’

Former Everton CEO Keith Wyness claims that the Portugal international’s days at Man Utd “are numbered” and that ex-Red Devils boss Ruben Amorim is interested in taking Fernandes to Milan at the end of the season.

Wyness told Football Insider: “I think what they will do is they will probably invoke his option to preserve value, and I think they may well sell him in the summer.

“Amorim and AC Milan have got an interest, and I could see that sort of thing happening quite easily. But if they’ve got that extra time with him in terms of his asset value, that would make sense to try and get some sort of valuation.

“I think obviously the connection with Amorim was quite good. So that sort of makes sense to me to have both parties happy with that.

“There is a festering wound that needs to be sorted out. And I do expect him to go. It could even be January, but United will still get a decent value if they invoke that option of the extra year, and that’s how I expect it to go. His days at United are numbered from now on.”