Arsenal forward Alexis Sanchez may not have time to do a medical for his potential move to Manchester City, according to latest reports.

City have under 12 hours to convince Arsenal to sell Alexis, and according to BBC reporter Simon Stone, it’s looking increasingly unlikely that a deal will happen. The sticking point, apparently, is that there might not be enough time to do a medical.

“Manchester City are really really keen to sign him,” Stone said, as reported by the Express. “As we already know, Arsenal need money but they also need a replacement. If those things can fit together, baring in mind, Chile have actually got a match tonight, then I can see the deal going through. 

“City won’t give that up without a fight. The longer this goes on, the more you have to think that this is going to be impossible to get across the line. I think we are already in a situation where if a deal was agreed it is going to be very hard to do a medical, purely because Sanchez has got a match tonight. 

“It’s early in the morning in South America at the moment so nothing will be happening there. It’s something that I think has legs and I wouldn’t give up on that just yet.”

A medical can, of course, be conducted in Chile provided there’s enough time. City can also apply for an extension to the deadline so long as they submit the required paperwork beforehand.

That said, a lot of this is dependent on Arsenal first agreeing to a price and then their ability to bring in a replacement. There has been talk of Julian Draxler and Ross Barkley coming in should Alexis leave, but neither of those deals are straightforward.

Everton are holding out for £35m for Barkley, while Arsenal would need to convince Draxler to leave Paris Saint-Germain. A lot of pieces need to fall into place for the Alexis sale to happen. It’s all set-up to be a mad final few hours or end in a massive anti-climax.