Several clubs are interested in signing Adam O’Reilly from Preston 

CORK CITY, Shamrock Rovers, Derry City, St Patrick’s Athletic, and Dundalk are all interested in signing midfielder Adam O'Reilly, who is free to leave Preston North End.

The 21-year-old is also in talks with a team in Scotland and clubs in League One and Two as he looks to secure a permanent home and regular first team football.

It is understood that the most realistic scenario is that the midfielder will join a team In the League of Ireland.

O’Reilly knows the league from his loan spells at Waterford and St Pat's, with the latter seeing him become a fan favourite at Richmond Park.

Through all of that, he remained under contract at Preston and he returned to his parent club at the end of the season.

O’Reilly has been at Deepdale since December 2016 and he has only made one first team appearance, against Aston Villa in 2018. 

That was followed up with a succession of loan spells for the Preston academy graduate.

Once he finished with St Pats, manager Ryan Lowe confirmed that he was free to leave.

“We had a good conversation with Adam,” he told LancsLive. 

“He was in last week with his two agents – an English agent and an Irish agent. He has done fantastically well and there is no point him coming back with the group, just to not play any games. 

"So, what we’ve said to Ads, is that we’re giving him the opportunity to venture and find a new challenge and a new club.” 

The club now want to support O’Reilly now as he looks for a permanent footballing home.

“What Adam doesn’t want to do is come back into the fold, when we’ve got youngsters now who’ve passed him a bit in the sense that we don’t want to stand in their way. 

"Ads does not need to sit around for six months and not play. He needs to continue the rich vein of form, so in fairness we’ve had to give Adam the license to do that because we feel it will benefit the kid. It’s about helping him go on and achieve his goals.

“We’ll help him as much as we possibly can and put his name around. He’s done fantastically well and I said that to him. 

"Selfishly, I could keep him here and have him around, maybe making the squad or playing Central League games. 

"But, what’s the real point of that? If he can find himself a club, which his agent thinks he will, then it will benefit Adam. 

"We’ll help him, give him some time off after a tough season and if he’s not gotten anywhere sorted then he’ll come back and be around the group."