Caley Thistle’s Liam Polworth is believed to be a target for Premiership club St Johnstone, with Inverness manager John Robertson confirming he has received an approach from an unspecified club to speak to the midfielder.
Polworth has spent his entire career with his hometown club but is out of contract in the summer, with clubs now able to speak to the 24-year-old with a view to agreeing a pre-contract.
Although Robertson refused to confirm the identity of the club that has made contact, Saints boss Tommy Wright is reportedly keen to take Polworth to McDiarmid Park.
Robertson said: “We’ve had an approach from a club to speak to Liam because he is out of contract in the summer. They have gone about it the right way where a lot of teams will make approaches without notifying the other club.
“This club phoned us and then wrote to us to say they were intending having a chat with Liam. We can’t stop that – there’s nothing we can do.
“We’ll just keep abreast of the situation. It depends whether they make inroads with Liam or if he wants to go now or in the summer – or if nothing comes of it.
“It is very much an in limbo situation. There’s not much we can do.”
Polworth has made 186 appearances since making his Inverness debut at the age of 16 in 2011, however the midfielder has already informed Robertson he is not prepared to rush into signing a new contract at Caledonian Stadium.
With Inverness currently sixth in the Championship, Robertson insists his budget for next season remains unknown, adding: “We’ve spoken to Liam on a couple of occasions this year and he said he wanted to leave it until the summer and see what options are out there.
“He’s perfectly entitled to do that. Until budgets for next season come in and we know what we’re dealing with, it’s impossible to talk to players about signing new deals.
“But we’re hopeful we can get that budget in shortly and then see what we’ve got. There may be more next year, there may be less.
“That obviously dictates what we can or cannot offer our players. We’ve had a formal approach and we’ll speak to him at some stage.
“If they decide they want him now and Liam decides he wants to go then, obviously, we have to make a decision on what we want to do.
“We don’t have to let him go but, by the same token, we have to look at the future.”