Doncaster Rovers announce sixth January signing - defender signs on loan from Yorkshire rivals

The 32-year-old centre-half joins from Rovers' League One rivals Bradford City. He has struggled for game time at Valley Parade this season, making 13 appearances across all competitions and racking up just 483 minutes of League One football. His last outing for the Bantams was in the 3-0 defeat at Mansfield on New Year’s Day. His contract at Bradford expires this summer.

Byrne could make a quickfire debut for Rovers on Tuesday night when they host Leyton Orient in the league. However, he will be unable to play on Saturday when Grant McCann's side visit Bradford - EFL rules state that loanees cannot face their parent club.

Speaking after his signing was confirmed, Byrne told Rovers’ website: “I heard about the interest last week and I was really eager to get it over the line. I’m really excited to come here. I had a good conversation with the manager which really interested me and I really wanted to get it done. I want to get games and I want to help the team in any way possible.”

Byrne will wear squad number 12 – previously worn by former loanee Connor O’Riordan who returned to parent club Blackburn recently.Byrne becomes the sixth January arrival for Rovers, who have already brought in Zander Clark and Frankie Okoronkwo on loan as well as Hakeeb Adelakun, Darren Robinson and Bayley McCann on permanent deals. The winter transfer window closes next Monday (February 2) at 7pm.

Rovers chief McCann said of the deal: "It was important we got the right one and we feel that we have. It’s an experienced signing for us, a real good character as well. He’s been involved in promotion-winning teams.

"All the people we’ve spoken to speak really highly of Neill. People like Dave Challinor spoke really highly of him and he’s signed him for three clubs. He’s everything we want in a centre half - he’s experienced, he’s a leader, he can shift, he’s got decent pace on him for defending space in-behind and he’s calm on the ball.

“I think he’ll add to our team and what we have and add that bit of nous that’s probably been missing for a while.

"January is a time where we didn't foresee that Connor (O'Riordan) would go back (to Blackburn) so we had to always go back to our list and look at the options we had and he (Byrne) was certainly high on that list.

"I'm really pleased and thankful to Bradford for letting us have him and we're looking forward to helping him and hopefully he helps us."

When quizzed on whether more deals are likely - Rovers have now signed six players this month - McCann said: "We're not actively looking to bring anyone else in. We've had 24, 25 bodies at the training ground today and it's very difficult for me to maybe leave four or five players off the bench.

"If anything else happens it'll probably be off the back of one or two players coming to me and asking if they can go and play games. If that's the case we tend to not stand in anybody's way. But that's not happening - my door's not knocking and I think everyone seems really happy to be here."