Mystery surrounds the immediate future of Colchester United's new Brazilian ace Jose Antunes Fumaca.

The exciting 22-year-old midfield wizard was being linked with a move to First Division Barnsley yesterday for a rumoured fee in the region of £300,000, having spent just five days at Layer Road after signing last Wednesday.

But U's boss Mick Wadsworth was adamant that Fumaca was still "very much a Colchester player!"

Sources at Barnsley claimed the Oakwell club had "already got their man - on loan until the end of the season."

Wadsworth insisted: "Fumaca is still ours!"

He did, however, reveal: "There is a clause in the player's contract that allows him a get-out if a bigger club comes in for him. But we are launching an 11th hour bid to make sure he remains at Layer Road.

"It will cost us, or any other club, x-number of pounds to own him from his Brazilian club until Christmas.

"Fumaca is a great lad, a lovely fellow. He likes it at Colchester and he's one helluva talented footballer - one of the best players I have ever worked with.

"We have made him a new offer, via his agent, to keep him at Colchester and outlining how we want him to play.

"If another club has made an offer for him the lad now has to make up his mind where he wants go - I'm hoping that club will be us."

Fumaca, meanwhile, was recovering at home yesterday after being stretchered out of his League debut in the 1-0 defeat against Manchester City on Saturday night after just 14 minutes.

The Brazilian was knocked out cold for 15-minutes following a clash of heads with City's central defender Andy Morrison and was taken to hospital suffering from severe concussion.

"It was very worrying at the time," said Wadsworth. "The boy was out sparko, but he did enough in those 14 minutes to prove to me just how good he is. I am very relieved he's okay now."

The U's boss also felt his team had done enough to win the sell-out, pay-per-view clash, decided by a lone Shaun Goater goal following a poor clearance by U's keeper Carl Emberson.

"You can't legislate for mistakes like Carl's, but the strikers have got tot start taking their chances.

"Those guys have got to take more responsibility - we created enough good chances to have won the match."

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.