Stoke City are finalising the signing of Augsburg left-back Kostas Stafylidis.

The Sentinel says Potters boss Paul Lambert has used his connections in Germany to move to the head of a queue with a loan move for the 24-year-old Greece international, who had already been linked with Roma and Fiorentina this month. The deal will be confirmed today.

He has not made an appearance since November but could be in line to make his first outing as Stoke take on Huddersfield at home on Saturday.

Stafylidis had been a key player at Augsburg last season but, as a late summer transfer to Hamburg was stalling, Philipp Max took his chance at the start of this term – and has quickly emerged as one of the best attacking full-backs in the Bundesliga.