Derby County have moved to sign former Brighton man Shane Duffy

Derby County have moved to bolster their defence ahead of their trip to Millwall by signing former Brighton centre-back Shane Duffy on a short-term deal.

The defender has put pen to paper on a deal until January and will go straight into the squad for the trip to the New Den at the weekend.

Duffy has been a free agent since leaving Norwich City in the summer after making 91 appearances for the club across a three-year spell. His arrival comes at a crucial time for Derby whose defence has been hit hard by injury in recent weeks with Matt Clarke, Eiran Cashin and Sondre Langas all injured.

Dion Sanderson will also serve a one-match ban this weekend after he was sent off in last weekend's 1-1 draw with Sheffield United.

Duffy will bring a huge amount of experience to Derby with the 34-year-old having graced the Premier League having won promotion with Brighton in the 2016-17 season.

He was Brighton's player of the season in 2018-19 and during a spell with Celtic also won the Scottish Cup. He is renowned for being a threat at set-pieces and has also captained Republic of Ireland.

After he was released by Norwich at the end of last season, during which he made four appearances for the Canaries, boss Philippe Clement explained: "Ruairi McConville has stepped up this season big time.

"Harry Darling also stepped up the last couple of months, Jakov Medic did well. He (Duffy) had a couple of small things along the way also. He's getting older, all these guys are younger.

"I've been in that moment of my career also in the past so I think it's a logical one. We respect heartily everything Shane has done for this club and he had really good spells. We wish him all the best for his next challenge."

Duffy's arrival is the second free agent that Derby have signed this month with Jack Robinson having also put pen to paper on a short-term deal until January.

He made his debut last weekend when he came off the bench in the 1-1 draw with Sheffield United.