Cork City midfielder George O'Callaghan's future appears to lie overseas after a proposed loan deal to Limerick failed to materialise by Monday's transfer deadline.

The player has fallen out with his manager, Damien Richardson, and has been linked with a number of clubs both here and overseas.

He is not now in a position to join another Irish club until after the end of the season and Cork City chairman Brian Lennox is waiting to see whether the interest from a number of English and Czech sides, including Nottingham Forest and Slavia Prague, which O'Callaghan and his agent Mickey Walsh insist is there, is backed up by some firm offers.

O'Callaghan has 18 months remaining on his contract with the Turner's Cross outfit.

Meanwhile, Waterford United hope to appoint Mike Kerley's successor over the next couple of weeks with the club announcing yesterday that it had whittled down 16 applicants for the post of manager to a shortlist of five who will be interviewed over the coming days.

A spokesman for the club said that a former Northern Ireland international as well as a number of former Premiership players were among the 16 who applied for the job.

Former manager Tommy Lynch and Paul Kirk, a member of the 1980 FAI Cup winning side, are also believed to have expressed an interest.

The FAI is on the verge of securing a 25-year lease on Rathbane in Limerick.

The association would then make the ground available to Limerick Football Club which has been in talks regarding the site with Fr Joe Young, the representative of its owner, Irish American businessman Peter Hogan.

The club needs to secure a lease of at least 25 years' duration in order to draw down the capital sports funding it has been granted to develop the ground but relations between its chairman, Danny Drew, and Young suffered a severe blow last week when a deal between the two parties collapsed at the last minute.