GOAL - Mario Cortegana

Luka Jovic is close to an end to his horror spell at Real Madrid and will be allowed to depart the club on loan this month and return to former club Eintracht Frankfurt, according to Goal.

The Serbian striker's agents are working with Real to secure him a loan away from Santiago Bernabeu, with AC Milan and Wolves having been among the clubs credited with an interest.

However, he will go back to Frankfurt, the club from where he moved to Madrid in 2019.

Jovic is not part of manager Zinedine Zidane's plans, and while Goal has learned that he is not happy about being forced out of Madrid and feels he can still prove himself and work his way into the first-team picture, the boss is set on getting rid of the Serbian and has no interest in keeping him even as a squad back-up option.

Injuries, off-field problems and a lack of opportunities have hampered Jovic at Real, and his time with the club looks to be over - at least until the end of the season.

Having joined Real Madrid in the summer of 2019, Jovic made only eight starts and played just 806 minutes in total during the 2019-20 campaign, scoring a meagre two goals and assisting twice more.

The 2020-21 campaign has scarcely gone any better, the forward making only three starts and playing a total of just 208 minutes. He has not scored nor created an assist this season.

The Goal report claims Real only want to loan Jovic out and are not interested in a permanent sale at this point, giving some hope that he could have a successful career at Santiago Bernabeu at some point. For now, though, this looks unlikely.

He joined Real in a €60 million (£53.5m/$73m) deal but has not come close to justifying that investment. A strong showing on loan, however, could allow Real to recoup a large amount of that fee should they sell him in the summer.

Jovic will be going back to Germany with Frankfurt, the club where he caught the eye between 2017 and 2019 and earned his move to Madrid. He scored 36 goals in 75 appearances in all competitions, again during a loan spell, on that occasion from Benfica over two years.

With Frankfurt he won the DFB-Pokal in 2017-18 and helped them to the Europa League semi-finals the following campaign, only losing on penalties to eventual champions Chelsea.