Antoine Kombouare, coach of Paris Saint-Germain, has played down his club’s failure to sign a central defender at the close of the transfer window.

In the closing hours of the market, PSG were linked strongly with Valenciennes’ Milan Bisevac, Dynamo Kyiv’s Badr El-Kaddouri and Lokomotiv Moscow’s Marko Basa, yet none of these figures arrived at the Parc des Princes. Siaka Tiene did sign from Valenciennes, but the Ivory Coast international is a left-back and is unable to operate in the centre of the defence.

“My priority was Bisevac,” Kombouare confirmed to RMC. “But in view of his sporting achievements, Valenciennes finally closed the door on Sunday night. We therefore returned to Basa. He's a player I wanted. But Lokomotiv Moscow lost this weekend and vetoed [the deal].

“Finally there was [Pape] Diakhate. But between Lyon, who play the Champions League, and PSG, I understand his choice.

“After that there were opportunities with Italian, English and Dutch defenders, but I did not venture into these choices and I opted for internal solutions.”

Meanwhile, Kombouare has not dismissed the possibility of selling Mateja Kezman and Jerome Rothen.

“In some countries, the market closes [on Wednesday], so they could still move for them,” the coach smiled.

PSG’s start to the season has ultimately been disappointing, despite a promising beginning. Les Parisiens have gone into the international break on the back of a three-game losing streak in all competitions.

Serbian forward Danijel Ljuboja has agreed a switch to Nice from Grenoble, claim the Ligue 1 club.

The 32-year-old striker will complete a move subject to a medical on Tuesday, and is poised to sign a one-year contract with the option of an extra year.

It is thought the deal taking Ljuboja to Nice will be worth approximately €300,000 (£247,000), and he is set to move to his eighth club.

The former Serbia international has previously played for Sochaux, Strasbourg, Paris St Germain, Stuttgart, Hamburg and Wolfsburg.

Nice have made a solid start to the French league campaign, having picked up six points from four games so far.

Following the recent sales of Loic Remy to Marseille and Anthony Modeste to Bordeaux, Ljuboja will provide valuable firepower up front.

Olympique Lyonnais general manager Claude Puel has hinted that his side may add to their squad before the transfer window closes on Tuesday.

A spate of hamstring injuries have seriously hampered les Gones in the early weeks of this campaign, with Michel Bastos, Cris, Aly Cissokho and Ederson all picking up injuries to the muscle over the course of the last three weeks. With the Champions League approaching and his squad a little thin on the ground, particularly in defence, Puel may move.

“You never know what can happen,” Puel told his club’s official website. “Until the last moment, things may happen.

"The fact that possibly some of our players are wanted, it can act as musical chairs. In this case, someone would sign for us. The group is balanced but anything is possible.”

President Jean-Michel Aulas hinted that there may be an additional arrival after acquiring Yoann Gourcuff from Girondins de Bordeaux earlier this week, but there have been no standout names linked to the Stade Gerland side in recent weeks.

Niger attacker Moussa Maazou appears to be on his way out of Russian powerhouse CSKA Moscow as Ligue 1 side Bordeaux have shown an interest in signing the young striker, if a report in L'Equipe is to be believed.

The Girondins are in the market for attacking reinforcements because of the departure of Marouane Chamakh to Arsenal and the ongoing uncertainty about the future of Argentinian striker Fernando Cavenaghi.

New head coach Jean Tigana supposedly sees the 22-year-old Maazou as the perfect addition to his front line and Bordeaux are hopeful to complete the signing of the forward in the upcoming days.

Maazou joined CSKA Moscow from Belgian side Lokeren in January 2009, but he failed to make an impact at the Army Club. Therefore, he was farmed out on loan to Monaco in the second half of last season.

CSKA have reportedly set a €4.5 million asking price for Maazou and Bordeaux seem to be willing to meet the Russian side's demands.

PARIS (AFP) – Rennes midfielder Fabien Lemoine is facing six months on the sidelines following a heavy blow to the side at the weekend that split one of his kidneys.

The injury, sustained in a collision with an opposing player during the Breton side's 3-0 win at Nancy on Saturday, saw Lemoine's kidney split into three parts and there were intial fears for his long-term health.

"This kind of injury in football is very rare and is more common in car crashes," said Rennes club doctor Karl Chaory.

He added that there were two possibilities for the treatment of the injury.

"The first is that we can hope that the kidney heals by itself, but that would take time -- at least six months, almost certainly longer," he said.

"The second would involve an operation to remove the kidney. That would take less time, but of course we would give priority to the player's overall health rather than to sporting considerations."

A final decision on how to proceed will be taken in the next 10 days, with Lemoine expected to be relased from hospital in Nancy at the end of this week.

Lyon boss Claude Puel has admitted he is worried by the length of time it is taking Lisandro Lopez to recover from an Achilles injury.

The Argentine striker, who joined Lyonhttp://static.lingospot.com/ spot/image/spacer.gif from Porto 12 months ago, has been out of action since picking up the injury in pre-season at the start of July.

He was not initially expected to be sidelined for too long but the road back to fitness has been slow and Puelhttp://static.lingospot.com/ spot/image/spacer.gif is not sure when the 27-year-old will be ready to play.

"It's pretty much up to him to decide when he returns," said Puel.

"In the MRI scan, there's a little mark on the sheath of his tendon. It depends on how the player feels.

"It worries me a little bit because I was expecting him to be able to return more quickly and at the start, it wasn't a serious injury."


Had enough
Lyon have picked up just one point from their opening two Ligue 1 games of the season and Puel is keen to have Lisandro available again as quickly as possible.

"He's spent a month and a half doing nothing, to which you have to add a month and a half of holidays during which he didn't do anything either," explained the manager.

"That makes a total of three months. He wants to get back. He's had enough.

"A player who isn't on the pitch always finds it hard. He's not good at the moment."

Lille have announced via their official website that they have secured the short-term future of Poland wideman Ludovic Obraniak, who has signed a one-year extension with the club, taking him through to 2012 with les Dogues.

Obraniak had been widely expected to depart the Stade Lille-Metropole this summer as he was being offered only a limited run in the first team. Auxerre were heavily linked to the former Metz midfielder, but he has ultimately committed himself to les Dogues for the time being.

The 25-year-old has provided able back-up in the Lille side, scoring 15 times and providing 14 assists from his station on the left wing since joining from les Grenats in the winter transfer window of 2007.

Despite being born in France, Obraniak elected to represent Poland at international level and made a great impression on his debut, when he struck a brace against Greece – still his only international goals to date in eight caps.

He will provide welcome assistance for LOSC as they attempt to better last season’s fourth-placed Ligue 1 finish, doubtless aware that he could get his chance on a more regular basis if Eden Hazard should move on next summer, as is widely expected.