Barnsley are expecting clubs to bid for Andy Yiadom again in the January transfer window, despite the full-back's recent dip in form.

The 26-year-old almost moved to the Premier League twice in the summer but a failed medical ended Huddersfield Town's interest then a loan deal with Swansea City was arranged just after the window closed so it was cancelled.

Yiadom – whose current contract expires at the end of this season – missed two months with the back problem discovered by Huddersfield but returned for the last eight matches. The Ghana international had a difficult game in the 3-1 loss at Bolton Wanderers on Saturday, his 26th birthday.

Head coach Paul Heckingbottom told the Chronicle: "I would expect clubs to come back in for him. I would have thought everyone will have been monitoring him and know his contract situation in the summer."

He added: "I don't think he has one eye on January and that can't come into our thinking. He will look at the Bolton game and be disappointed. But he's been thrown straight back in and played Saturday, Tuesday for a number of weeks and he might be having that physical and mental dip. He coped very well for the first few games on adrenaline.

"His performances have been OK but his physical data has gone right down and it could be to do with everything he missed early in the season. We could possibly give him a break. We have done that with a few players."

Heckingbottom has previously said that the pending takeover by a consortium headed by Chinese billionaire Chien Lee, is causing the club to 'stand still' while stopping him planning for January signings or offering players new contracts.

With the window set to open in 23 days, he said: "We don't know what we can do in January yet so we have to wait and see. We are talking about it all the time, but that's all we can do until we know what we can do in January."

Asked what his number one priority is in January, he said: "A striker. A different type of striker to the ones we already have."

The Reds are hoping to bolster their strikers department as, although top-scorer Tom Bradshaw has ten goals, the other senior frontmen Mamadou Thiam and Ike Ugbo have netted just once each and none since September. 

Barnsley thought they had brought in Swansea striker Oliver McBurnie on the final day of the summer transfer window but the transfer was cancelled because the appropriate forms had not been submitted in time. McBurnie, 21, has made seven substitute appearances in the Premier League for Swansea this season, including in their last two matches. He is now being linked with Aston Villa.

Asked if could go back in for McBurnie, Heckingbottom said: "We will have to see. There are plenty of strikers out there. We will just have to see who we can get."

As well as goal-scorers, Heckingbottom also knows he needs to stabilise a midfield which has struggled to control games recently.He said: "The majority of our players have the main weakness of their play off the ball and when the ball is in the air, not on the floor. Not many teams near the top of the table have that kind of make-up of squad. We're going to develop a dogged and determined group again.

"We either have to develop that in the players we have got or add to it with new players. We're going to keep pushing this group as much as we can but, if we get to January and we still need players who are better off the ball or who can score us the goals we need, then we will have to look to do that."

Heckingbottom has also said he may look at bringing in a new goalkeeper and letting current back-up Nick Townsend leave, permanently or on loan, if he cannot dislodge current number one Adam Davies.

The Reds boss is not expecting Everton or Leicester to exercise recall clauses in the season-long loans of Joe Williams and Harvey Barnes respectively.