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Schalke sporting director says Julian Draxler's move from club is still on

Ina Fassbender / REUTERS

FC Schalke sporting director Horst Heldt said Friday that if Julian Draxler's future was still by midnight on Saturday, the 21-year-old would remain with the club.

Heldt backtracked on his comments Sunday, telling the club website that talks are ongoing with Draxler, fellow Bundesliga outfit Wolfsburg, and Italian giants Juventus.

"The door is not yet closed, as we had extensive discussions on the transfer of Julian Draxler throughout Saturday," Heldt said. "We will have to address the issue further. But we will also take the necessary time in order to make the best decision for the club."

On Saturday, Schalke denied that Juventus had made a bid for the German international, but the latest comments from the Veltins-Arena suggest that an offer has been tabled.

"No offer had been made at the time of (Saturday's) statement," Heldt said.

Heldt also predicted that Draxler's potential move away from Gelsenkirchen could go to the last minute of the German transfer deadline on Monday evening, but refuted reports that Draxler had asked teammates if a Wolfsburg shirt suited him, and that manager Andre Breitenreiter had tears in his eyes when substituting the player on Friday:

Both Julian Draxler and Andre Breitenreiter were very surprised about these reports. Julian strongly denied that he said anything of the sort or anything that could be interpreted that way. For Andre, the handshake he gave Julian was just a normal gesture towards a player who is coming off. He didn’t have tears in his eyes. All these rumours from the past few weeks were not on either of Julian's or Andre's mind in that situation.

With Kevin De Bruyne's transfer from Wolfsburg to Manchester City seemingly imminent, Draxler would be a straight replacement for the Belgian. Juventus, meanwhile, is still looking to fill the void left by Arturo Vidal's transfer to Bayern Munich this summer.

Wolfsburg and Juventus are expected to battle it out right to the wire.

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