Harry Maguire has been left out of Leicester City’s squad for Friday's friendly against Atalanta, because of the continuing uncertainty over the centre-back’s future.

Maguire held talks with ­Leicester manager Brendan Rodgers on Thursday morning and it was agreed that the defender would miss the final pre-season friendly at the King Power Stadium.

Manchester United are targeting the England international, but have got nowhere near Leicester’s ­asking price, which is understood to be £85 million, plus add-ons to take the final fee to £90 million.

United are yet to up their offer from £70 million plus add-ons, which was tabled last month, and are facing an anxious final week of the transfer window as they ­attempt to land the 26-year-old. They ­remain at least £15 million short of Leicester’s valuation.

Leicester believe that leaving Maguire out of the squad is the best solution for both parties as he is not in the right frame of mind, due to the speculation over a move before deadline day.

The east Midlands club are also mindful that Friday's game against the Serie A club is their final ­workout before the Premier League opener at home to Wolverhampton Wanderers a week on Sunday.

Maguire played in a friendly against Stoke in July credit: GETTY IMAGES

Rodgers is also keen to prepare for the possible situation of Maguire being sold before Thursday’s deadline by trying out Turkey ­international Caglar Soyuncu in his place.

Maguire is expected to train as normal at Leicester’s training ground on Saturday.

Leicester maintain that ­Maguire’s attitude has been “excellent”, since he informed the club of his desire to pursue a move to United during the club’s pre-season training camp in France.

However, it is understood that Maguire fears he may be priced out of a move to Old Trafford. There is also alleged frustration that his professional behaviour has not persuaded Leicester to reach a compromise with United.

Maguire has not resorted to the sort of tactics employed by Riyad Mahrez when the Algeria ­playmaker sought to engineer a move from Leicester.

Mahrez, who submitted a number of transfer requests and missed training sessions after a deadline-day move to Manchester City failed to materialise in February last year, eventually joined City last summer for £60 million, a significantly smaller sum than Leicester had been ­demanding five months earlier.

Leicester are seeking a world-­record transfer fee for a defender and made that clear to both United and Manchester City during the first round of negotiations shortly after the end of last season.

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That figure, which has remained unchanged since then, will eclipse the £75 million paid by Liverpool for Virgil van Dijk in January last year, and is a fee United are ­reluctant to pay at this stage.

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, the United manager, has signed Aaron ­Wan-Bissaka and Daniel James in this window and admitted he is still desperate to make ­further additions before the deadline.

He said: “We’re looking good. Of course we’ve been working on a few cases over the summer. It’s never easy. The club has been very good and the market is very hard. We’re ­trying to get to the start of the season with the squad that we want.”

United are also encountering frustration in their pursuit of midfielder Sean Longstaff, with Newcastle United ­refusing to budge from their £50m valuation – around twice the figure the Manchester club had in mind when they first inquired.

United are also in talks with Juventus about Paulo Dybala in a potential swap-deal with Romelu Lukaku, who is also wanted by Inter Milan. Dybala is thought to be unhappy about the prospect of being forced out by Juventus and it remains to be seen if he agrees to move to Old Trafford. Inter had been the front-runners for Lukaku, but their £54m bid got nowhere near United’s £90m valuation and they need to offload Mauro Icardi to be able to finance a move for the Belgium striker. Juventus have previously shown an interest in Icardi.

Solskjaer had suggested in March that players of the quality of Dybala did not need scouting. “We have scouts looking ... but if you say that we need a false nine, then we don’t need to scout Messi or Dybala,” Solskjaer told the Fotballklubben podcast. “You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to say that, ‘We’ll take him!’”