Brighton have 10m bid for Shakhtar Donetsk centre-back Mykola Matviyenko rejected

Brighton have had an opening 10m offer rejected for Shakhtar Donetsk defender Mykola Matviyenko.

The south coast club have been in talks with their Ukrainian counterparts in recent days, as revealed by Sportsmail, and have now made a formal bid for the 26-year-old.

However, they appear to have fallen some way short of Shakhtar's valuation of the player, who are holding out for a fee in excess of 20m.

Matviyenko was an ever-present at the heart of the Shakhtar defence before Christmas, playing every minute of the side's Champions League campaign.