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Ricardo Santos says he will wait until the end of the season before making up his mind about a contract extension at Wanderers.
The club skipper wants to keep his full focus on the run-in, insisting a play-off place is still achievable despite defeat at MK Dons on Saturday.
Ian Evatt has said it would be “very hard to replace” the Portugal-born centre-back he brought to the club on a free transfer from Barnet in the summer of 2020.
His current deal expires next summer and a handful of clubs in the Championship are understood to have watched his progress over the last few months.
The man himself is playing it cool.
“He (Evatt) pulled me to one side and says he wants me to stay,” Santos said.
“At the moment I am focussing on this season. I have still got a year left and I don’t want to rush into anything. This is where I am at the moment and I am happy to be here. I am only worried about the games we have got coming up.”
Wanderers are seven points behind the final play-off position, currently occupied by Sheffield Wednesday, with 11 games remaining.
Defeat at MK came at the end of a gruelling eight-game February and Santos believes some time at Lostock this week will benefit the players who have been working flat-out.
“We can’t get too down,” he said. “There are 11 games to go and we feel like we can get wins from the teams we are playing against. We can still get there.
“We haven’t had a lot of time to work things on the training ground. When we played Ipswich and started the run we hadn’t really worked on much, the gaffer just changed the formation. We need to take advantage of the time we have now, work on a few things, then go again.”
Evatt voiced his displeasure at comments made by referee Sebastian Stocksbridge during the first half of Saturday’s game – but Santos maintained that he had not been near the incident.
Summing up the feeling within the dressing room, the captain added: “I wouldn’t say angry, just disappointed. They are a good side and they are where they are for a good reason. But I still think we could have got something from the game in that second half. They were looking tired and that is normally where we kick on.
“Maybe we lacked a bit of creativity, going forward. They were working off scraps. But we’ll regroup.
“There are a lot of negative things in the game but I think we can be positive about the way we came out for the second half. We look fit and we don’t stop for 90 minutes.”
It has also been a time to celebrate for Santos, whose partner gave birth to his second son last week.
Little Caio and mother are doing well, but Santos admits staying in the team hotel on Friday night was a blessing. “We travelled on Friday but he is keeping us up so I got a bit more sleep,” he laughed. “I have got another one at three years old and he is definitely a bit more lively.
“But everything is fine, they are doing great.”
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