Luke Steele, the West Bromwich Albion goalkeeper, looks set to miss out on an appearance at Wembley after West Brom and Barnsley failed to reach an agreement on his future. Steele is due back at The Hawthorns after talks about extending his loan at Barnsley to take in the FA Cup semi-final against Cardiff City next month broke down.

Simon Davey, the Barnsley manager, has said that he is searching for alternative signings, so it appears that Steele faces being frozen out of the semi-finals, despite having links to two of the clubs taking part.

“Luke will be back here training with us as far as we are aware,” Tony Mowbray, the West Brom manager, said. “It is a sad state of affairs, but I like Simon Davey so I am not going to get into a war of words with him. It is unfortunate for Luke, but there you go.”

Steele played a significant part in helping Barnsley to reach the last four, with a string of impressive performances during his month on loan. He starred in the fifth-round win over Liverpool at Anfield and kept a clean sheet as Barnsley knocked out Chelsea, the holders, at Oakwell in the sixth round.

West Brom have offered Steele to Barnsley on loan for the rest of the season and on a free transfer in the summer, despite the former Manchester United player having a year left on his contract. But Barnsley have balked at Albion’s insistence that they should pay the majority of the goalkeeper’s wages for the rest of the season after netting more than £1 million from their Cup run. Until now, Steele’s wages at Oakwell have been subsidised by West Brom.