Tottenham transfer news: Defender Dominic Ball joins Cambridge United on loan until end of season

Tottenham defender Dominic Ball has joined League Two side Cambridge United on loan for the rest of the season, the North London club confirmed on its official website.

The 19-year-old defender joined Tottenham in 2011 and has gone on to impress for the White Hart Lane outfit's youth teams in recent seasons. He made the step up to the U21s last year with 16 appearances.

Ball, who has been capped at U16, 17, 18, 19 and 21 age groups by Northern Ireland, switched international allegiance to England recently and has been capped at U19 and 21 levels by the Three Lions.

The Spurs centre-back is in the final six months of his contract and is hoping to impress his parent club during this spell with Cambridge in order to persuade them to extend his current deal. This is also his first loan spell away from the club.

The U's have a massive game in the FA Cup on Friday as they welcome 20-times English champions Manchester United to their stadium for a fourth round clash. Ball is eligible for the game and will most likely play from the start or off the bench.

Meanwhile, Spurs youngsters progressed to the fifth round of the FA Youth Cup after a 2-0 win over Wolves on Thursday night.

They now face Manchester United in the next round and the victors will earn themselves a place in the last four. Coach Kieran McKenna was pleased with the performance of his young team despite just returning from tournaments in Florida and Malaysia.

"We said before the game that the players would need to adapt as they came back into an English-style game and I think they did that really well. The boys showed a different side to their game in terms of resilience – something that we've been looking for – and obviously we scored two really good goals so it was a pleasing night," McKenna told Spurs' official site.