Citroen considering Thierry Neuville for 2017 WRC line-up

Neuville was part of the Citroen Junior team for his breakthrough WRC season in 2012, having previously competed for sister Peugeot brand in the Intercontinental Rally Challenge, but he shunned the offer of a part-time '13 deal in favour of a move to M-Sport.

Citroen team boss Yves Matton had previously been cool on the idea of Neuville coming back, but there is increasing speculation that a 2017 deal is likely.

Matton said the door was open and that he would see Meeke and Neuville as potential joint number one drivers.

"It's one of the solutions," he said.

"Neuville and Kris are the same profile for me, but don't forget I could manage four drivers at the same level in the World Touring Car Championship.

"To have them is one scenario, but at the moment I only write down the different scenarios.

"We will know at the end of this month what is the best scenario and after that we'll think about the drivers."

Matton has 10 drivers on his shortlist and plans to reduce it to "four or five" by the end of August.

Neuville remained tight-lipped on his future, but sources close to the Belgian have admitted it looks like his time with Hyundai is up after three seasons that included the marque's first WRC victory in Germany in 2014.

Citroen is currently rotating between Meeke, Craig Breen and Stephane Lefebvre in its limited 2016 programme run by PH Sport, and is set to field three full-time cars when it makes its fully-fledged return next year.