Shrewsbury Town complete signing of Brad Walker

The 22-year-old has joined for an undisclosed fee and penned an 18-month deal at Montgomery Waters Meadow.

He will spend the remainder of the campaign with Wrexham, where he has been on loan for the first half of the season

Walker featured heavily under Ricketts before the latter left the Racecourse to become Town boss last month.

“Brad is a player I took to Wrexham,” said Town manager Sam Ricketts. “He’s a player with huge ability and someone who I think has potential.

“He has potential to be a really important player in the future.

“We have brought him in now but we will leave him out on loan with Wrexham to continue his development for this season.

“As a two-club rule he can’t play for us this year, so it made sense for him to continue his development there.

“He’s in great hands. He’s close by as well so we can monitor him and get him ready and up and running.”

Despite being only 22, the midfielder has racked up nearly 150 senior league appearances.

Ricketts added: “For a young lad he’s played an awful lot of league games. He’s knocking on 150 appearances or something like that.

“He’s played a lot of football and I see something in him. I see where he really needs to improve and he knows that.

“It’s going to be a hard journey for him, but I think if he can start doing what I expect him to do, he has a bright future.

“We always have to look ahead and young players who want to improve and have good careers is a big part of that.”

Wrexham have applied for international clearance and hope Walker will be available for their next Vanarama Premier game against AFC Fylde on January 19.

Walker said: “I really wanted to stay at Wrexham for the rest of the season and finish the job.

“We are in a fantastic position and I have really enjoyed my time at the club. I have signed for Shrewsbury now but nothing has changed in terms of my commitment and ambitions towards Wrexham’s promotion campaign.”