Manchester City have identified Southampton's on-loan central defender Toby Alderweireld as a summer transfer target.

The 25-year-old Belgian is currently at Southampton on a season-long loan from Atletico Madrid and had made 16 appearances for Ronald Koeman's high-flying team before injuring his hamstring in the win at Manchester United early in January.

Southampton have a £6.8million option on Alderweireld but it's understood Atletico may well use a clause in the deal that stipulates they can essentially pay £1.5m to cancel that and then sell the player to the highest bidder.

Toby Alderweireld has been in impressive form since joining Southampton on loan from Atletico Madrid

The 25-year-old, in action against Chelsea in December, is a summer transfer target for Manchester City

Alderweireld went off injured against Arsenal last month, subsequently ruling him out of action for a month

City are still looking for defensive reinforcements as coach Manuel Pellegrini has not yet found the perfect partner for captain Vincent Kompany.

Both Martin Demichelis and Eliaquim Mangala have been given opportunities but have so far not done enough to convince anybody at the Etihad Stadium that they can help take City to the next level, particularly in Europe.

Alderweireld's wages may also be prohibitive for Southampton if they were to get involved in an auction for the player.

It now remains to be seen if City follow up their interest or not.

Meanwhile, City are preparing for next week's Champions League tie against Barcelona with the Spanish club back on form after their earlier difficulties this season.

Ronald Koeman (left) looks on frustrated while Alderweireld winces in pain on the touchline

Alderweireld (middle) celebrates with team-mates Jose Fonte (left) and Morgan Schneiderlin (right) after the Saints beat Hull in November

Barcelona - who knocked City out at this stage last season - have won their last 11 games and talisman Lionel Messi said: 'The truth is that we are good.

'Fortunately, after our poor start to the year everything changed for us.

'We are now in a different dynamic and everything is going in the right direction.

'The team has confidence and there is a different attitude and a lot of determination.

'That is the reason why we are today where we are. We face City just as we did last year and it's a team that has a lot of great players.

'It's going to be a really difficult tie. We expect a level tie and it will be decided by details.

'It's going to be a beautiful challenge especially because City have reinforced their team a lot.'

The centre-half (left) has over 40 senior international caps for Belgium