Town boss Jim Magilton has confirmed that he will offer Cork City midfielder George O'Callaghan a contract, as TWTD reported last month. O'Callaghan has been on trial with the Blues since September.
Magilton said: "We will now sit down with George and go through the bits and piece and offer him a contract. Everything he has done has been very positive and we have been delighted with his all round attitude around the place, which has been first class."
O'Callaghan, who scored the winning goal in the reserves friendly with Millwall yesterday, initially appeared to be joining the Blues on loan, but Cork made it clear to Town and other interested parties that they would only talk about a permanent switch.
An attacking midfield player, O'Callaghan started his professional career at Port Vale as a striker but switched position after moving to Cork in 2002. After 39 appearances and four goals over four years and interest from Spurs, he had drifted out of the first team picture at Vale Park.
O'Callaghan was named Port Vale's Young Player Of The Year in 1997 and also won an LDV Vans Trophy winners medal in 2000/01. Capped at U18 and U20 by the Republic of Ireland, O'Callaghan has won a Munster Senior Cup medal and an Eircom League winners medal with Cork. In 2005 he was named the Eircom League player of the year.
His Cork spell came to an end in July when he fell out with Cork boss Damien Richardson over a fine imposed on him by the Eircom League club and he was placed on the transfer list.
In October O'Callaghan was briefly hospitalised by a bout of shingles. At the time the illness was wrongly reported to be meningitis.