Philip Heise's unusual Norwich City career is close to a conclusion, with the left-back's loan club expecting a permanent transfer to be agreed.

The German turns 30 next month and has a year remaining on his Canaries contract, having spent the past 18 months on loan.

Signed from Dynamo Dresden for a nominal fee in January 2019, City's promotion a few months later meant that Heise's only appearance came during a shock 1-0 loss to League Two side Crawley in the League Cup second round at the start of the next campaign.

He was on the bench for a few Premier League games before returning to the German second tier and helping Nuremberg to scrape to survival thanks to an away goal in their relegation play-off.

This season he was with Karlsruher and mixing it in the top half of the Bundesliga 2 table, eventually slipping away from promotion contention to finish sixth, with a goal and six assists during 30 appearances.

With Norwich returning to the Premier League this season it seemed unlikely that another opportunity in England would follow and Karlsruher sporting director Oliver Kreuzer has revealed a permanent switch is close.

“We are on the home stretch with Philip Heise," Kreuzer told local newspaper Badische Neueste Nachrichten.

"On the one hand we agree with him, on the other hand we have also found a good solution with Norwich City. I assume that we will be able to settle the contract modalities at the beginning of next week."

It's understood the Canaries are keen to agree permanent solutions with Heise and other out-of-favour senior players this summer, as sporting director Stuart Webber and head coach Daniel Farke plan for the Premier League.

Timm Klose, Josip Drmic, Tom Trybull and Mo Leitner all also have 12 months remaining on their contracts and, apart from Leitner, were out on loan this season.

However, Basel have already announced that they will not be signing 33-year-old former Switzerland centre-back Klose on a permanent deal.

Drmic had found some goal-scoring form with Croatian side Rijeka after a January move and Trybull was on loan elsewhere in the Championship with Blackburn, with City having the option to extend the midfielder's deal until 2023.