Former Sydney FC utility Zadkovich was delighted to join Derby alongside Socceroo Mile Sterjovski in April 2008, despite agreeing by text message to join Newcastle Jets.

A four day trial with the Rams earned him a contract from then manager Paul Jewell, just as the Rams were relegated from the English Premier League to the Championship.

The dream soon soured though after he was injured in the Olyroos campaign in Beijing which left him on Derby's treatment table when he turned up for the new season.

He needed a hernia operation on his return to Derby and though he played some football, he still had chronic adductor pain.

The apparently simple injury escalated out of control and he returned home to Wollongong in April for adductor tenotomy surgery to release the tendon from the bone. He returned to Derby in September hoping to impress new boss Nigel Clough - but apparently failed to do so, never reaching full fitness.

After signing almost 20 months ago, Zadkovich has only made a handful of appearances for Derby and just two starts.

Now Derby are keen to offload him as soon as possible rather than wait for his contract to expire at the end of the season.

"Ruben is still injured and he has been offered a termination agreement for the last six months of his contract. We are waiting for his agent's response on that one," Clough told the local Derby Telegraph.

Earlier this year, Ruben rued his bad luck with his fitness.

"Six weeks has turned into a year. Ten games in a year ... it's shit," he told the Illawarra Mercury in Septmber. "If you asked me during the Olympics how things were going, I would have said it's all looking good.

"It's a slippery slope. I just want to play When you're playing there's no better place in the world, nothing better.

"When you're not, there's nothing worse - you miss your family and friends and the best country in the world and you're watching your career slide away."

His agent may now be keen to resurrect the abandoned Jets deal with former Newcastle coach Gary van Egmond. Current Jets coach Branko Culina worked with Zadkovich during his spell in control at Sydney FC,