Former Brisbane Roar midfielder Luke Brattan said he is close to a “once in a lifetime chance” of signing for English Premier League giants Manchester City.

The 25-year-old – who has been an unused substitute for Australia twice – left for the UK on Wednesday after walking out on the Roar due to a pay dispute.

“I’ll meet up with my agent (Ritchie Hinton) when I get to England and he’ll go over some things with me,” Brattan told The Courier-Mail.

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“City is a massive club and this will be a once in a lifetime chance.”

However, it is understood that if Brattan signed for Manchester City, he would be immediately loaned out.

The ball-playing midfielder was singled out for praise by Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers when his side played the Roar in a pre-season friendly in July.

Brattan starred in Brisbane’s loss and Rodgers said: “The controlling player, 18 (Brattan), sat in and controlled the game and gave us a wee bit of a problem in the first half in terms of when to press them and when not.”

Brattan has played 91 A-League games for the Roar, scoring four goals.

The English-born midfielder is currently in the Socceroos squad but national team boss Ange Postecoglou said on Wednesday that he needed to find regular football if he wanted to remain in the mix long-term.

“We’ve taken a bit of a risk to select him in this squad but we just felt after the last camp he did quite well and we want to have another look at him,” Postecoglou said.

“Subsequent to this camp, obviously, wherever he does move to, he’s going to have to be playing regular football.”