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German side Schalke need to sell players before they can bring Burnley’s Darko Churlinov back to the club in January.

That’s according to BILD, who say the club’s board have insisted that sales must take place before the squad can be strengthened.

Churlinov remains out of the picture at Burnley under Vincent Kompany this season despite having battled back to full fitness following a spell in hospital with blood poisoning.

Before that he had been close to a move away from Turf Moor after a disappointing year in which he barely featured during Burnley’s promotion campaign back to the Premier League.

Schalke remain big fans of him after a loan spell at the club earlier in his career and a report earlier this month indicated that they would love to have him back if they could get a deal done in January.

BILD now explain that can only happen if there are sales first, with those around CFO Christina Rühl-Hamers demanding that sales be made to allow sports director André Hechelmann to go on a shopping spree.

If they don’t happen then there is no transfer budget for incoming transfers and so a list of players that can be moved on is being drawn up.

For now, they are reliant on loan deals, with purchase clauses potentially included, and that would be the deal they’d likely look at for Churlinov should they want to bring him back from Burnley.

Fortuna Düsseldorf and FC St. Pauli have also been linked, although MOPO report that, according to their information, ‘there is no truth’ regarding the latter.

That’s some good news for Schalke at least, who may need to convince Churlinov and Burnley to remain patient as they try to get their finances in order so they can move for their former star at some point next month.