French defender Aly Cissokho's move from Porto to AC Milan appears to have collapsed after the player failed a medical, the clubs indicated Thursday.
Porto issued a statement informing the Portuguese stock exchange that ''the definitive sale of the (player's) sporting rights was without effect''.
Earlier, Milan CEO Adriano Galliani told reporters that Porto did not like Milan's suggestion that a 15-million-euro, five-year transfer should be turned into a one-year loan during which the player could get treatment on a dental problem said to be affecting his back muscles.
Galliani said a future transfer could be agreed once the problem was sorted out - but Porto was not ready to bear its share of the loan cost.
''They accepted the idea of a loan but not the cost,'' he said.
The 21-year-old French-Senegalese was to have been the first arrival at the San Siro since the departure of Brazil striker Kaka for Real Madrid and coach Carlo Ancelotti for Chelsea.
Cissokho joined Porto in January and helped it to its fourth straight Portuguese title.
Milan fans hoped he might partly compensate for the retirement of club legend Paolo Maldini.
But new coach Leonardo does have a defensive newcomer in ex-Fluminense centre-back Thiago Silva, 24, who has been in Milan for months but unable to play because the club's quota of non-EU players was full.
Kaka's world-record move has made a spot available.
Up front, press reports say Milan is trying for German champions Wolfsburg's Bosnian giant Edin Dzeko to beef up the attack after Kaka's departure.
AC's Italy mainstays Gennaro Gattuso and Andrea Pirlo on Thursday denied press reports they might be following Ancelotti to Chelsea.
