Motherwell manager Stuart Kettlewell has denied any knowledge of a visit to Norwich City by his player Max Johnston.

Johnston is out of contract this summer and expected to leave the Scottish club, who would be due compensation due to his age.

The 19-year-old is understood to have been shown around the Canaries’ Colney training ground prior to the final day defeat to Blackpool on May 8, but Kettlewell claims that he was given no warning of the trip south by Johnston.

“I don’t know,” Kettlewell said when asked whether Johnston had visited Norwich. “What I would expect is that if someone was visiting another football club that there would be some sort of dialogue there.

“There’s been absolutely no dialogue from Max or his representatives or anything like that to tell us that that was happening.”

With only a year left on Max Aarons’ contract and the club open to his departure, Johnston would bolster a right-back department in need of reinforcement after Sam Byram’s exit.

Bali Mumba’s return from a loan spell at Plymouth Argyle will help do that, but City are hopeful of adding Johnston to their ranks this summer after confirming Burnley striker Ashley Barnes' signing earlier this week.

Kettlewell reinforced his expectation that he would have been informed of a Colney visit by Johnston, however, saying: “I’m very, very old school in my way of thinking here.

“If something like that was to come about then I generally think picking up the phone, a text message, a face-to-face, something like that, would come my way.

“So I can’t confirm that or deny it. I’m not entirely sure whether that has been the case, but I certainly know the process that I’d expect to happen if that was the situation.”