Barnsley eye up Leeds United defender

The Reds are still looking to strengthen their squad ahead of the Championship campaign, which kicks off against Fulham at Oakwell on Sunday.

The club have built up a good relationship with their West Yorkshire rivals, having already signed Mallik Wilks and Aapo Halme this summer and Pearce is another name they discussed.

First-team coach Dale Tonge said: “We've had conversations about quite a few of the Leeds boys and Pearce is one of those players because we identified these positions are ones we can strengthen.

“It's more the experience of the level, maybe not so much the minutes, but he has had played at the level and he is obviously a very good player.

"At this moment in time we have not made an approach for Pearce."

The left-back position has been an area of concern for the Reds as last season's first choice Dani Pinillos has been struggling with injury.

“Initially, at the start of the summer that was a conversation because of experience of the level and Dani's injury,” Tonge added. “We weren't really sure how Dani's injury was going to come, the nature of it, it was quite a rare injury, so those conversations were happening about six weeks ago.”

Pinillos should be involved against the Cottagers on Saturday, but Jacob Brown is still a number of weeks away from fitness.