Arsenal are closing in on the signing of the England Under-21 international defender Rob Holding from Bolton Wanderers.

The 20-year-old is understood to have travelled down to London on Monday night for a medical and to finalise personal terms with the Gunners after a bid in the region of £2m was accepted by Wanderers.

Holding has been with Bolton since the age of seven and made his senior bow for his boyhood club in a Capital One Cup tie with Burton last August.

Capable of playing as either a centre-back or a full-back, Holding made 30 appearances last term and was named the club’s player of the year in a campaign which ended in relegation into League One. He was then called up to Gareth Southgate’s Under-21s at the end of that season and was part of the squad who won the Toulon Tournament in France.

News of serious interest in Holding first emerged towards the end of last term and Bolton’s interim manager, Jimmy Phillips, was instructed to leave the defender out of the team to face Fulham on the last day of the season.