Festy Ebosele’s loan from Udinese has been cut short and he has returned to the Italian side.

It's understood the Hornets' sister club decided to recall the player this week.

While there has been no official confirmation from either club, the player bid farewell to Watford on social media earlier today.

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The Irish international wing-back moved to Vicarage Road from Italy at the very end of the summer transfer window.

The 22-year-old, who was born in Wexford, had caught the attention of the Pozzo scouting network while he was at Derby and they took him to Italy for a fee believed to be €100,000 in 2021.

Ebosele made his Watford debut as a substitute in the draw with Coventry at Vicarage Road in mid-September, and then scored on his first start for the club, helping secure a 2-1 win over Sunderland two weeks later.

However, he was seemingly unable to get a run in the team, never starting more than two games in succession.

Ebosele also only completed two full fixtures for the Hornets – he was substituted during the other five games he started.

Ebosele says farewell on social media (Image: Instagram)

Head coach Tom Cleverley hinted in recent weeks that the Irishman’s work on the training pitch was not at a level that would earn him more game time, and he has only played 110 minutes since Boxing Day.

His last outing for Watford was in the 2-1 home defeat at the hands of Preston North End a week ago.

On that occasion he replaced the injured Kwadwo Baah after 15 minutes, but then sustained an injury himself and had to come off in the 53rd minute.

The ankle injury he picked up that night ruled him out for a couple of months, and he didn’t travel to Coventry on Saturday.

Now his brief spell at Vicarage Road is over and he returns to Udinese, though there have been rumours that Turkish sides Galatasaray and İstanbul Başakşehir would like to sign him.

For Watford, it frees up one of the loan spaces within their squad which, with only a few days of the January transfer window left, must surely be filled.