Brandon Williams is prepared to leave Manchester United on loan this month amid a lack of playing time in the Premier League.
The MEN understands Newcastle have expressed interest and Southampton appeal to full-back Williams, whose preference is to move to a Premier League club.
Southampton made a late enquiry about Williams, 20, on deadline day in October and he has not started for United since.
Williams has played six minutes in the league all season and has not started a top-flight game since the 2-0 victory over Manchester City in March of last year. His only starts for United this term were in the Carabao Cup wins over Luton and Brighton in September and Williams has also lined up twice for the Under-23s.
Kyle Walker-Peters and Ryan Bertrand are firmly established as Southampton's full-back pairing and have missed one league game between them this term, but coach Ralph Hassenhuttl is short of cover and Williams is a right-footed left-back.
United's €20million signing of Alex Telles in the summer has pushed Williams down the left-back pecking order and manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has played Timothy Fosu-Mensah and Victor Lindelof ahead of him at right-back in the league games Aaron Wan-Bissaka has not played in.
When Solskjaer was asked about a potential loan move for Williams three weeks ago, he said: "Brandon has done really well since he came into the team. He had a slow start to the season for different reasons. I think he's now coming back to himself. I can see more Brandon being Brandon again.
"I've enjoyed seeing him, I've enjoyed him more in training, he's played a couple of 23s games and has been more involved.
"That's something we'll look at in January but we highly rate Brandon so whoever's interested, they're not wrong."
Williams signed a new three-year contract with United in August and started in all four of their semi-final fixtures last season.
