Swindon Town and Sean McGurk are in negotiations over a contract extension, according to interim head coach Gavin Gunning. 

McGurk was a revelation immediately after arriving at Swindon on deadline day during the January transfer window, scoring twice in his first three starts for the club, a pair of wonderful individual goals against Gillingham and Tranmere Rovers.

However, he has struggled to maintain those same performance levels since and has fallen out of favour, not playing in any of Town’s last five games and even being excluded from the squad for two of those games.

The 21-year-old’s contract expires this summer, although it had previously been said that Swindon have an option to extend that by an additional year.

The former Leeds United man sparked speculation this week over whether he might be leaving after he posted on Instagram, “Stick to the plan. You knew it would never be easy."

However, Gunning has said that Swindon and McGurk are in negotiations over a new deal after the players were informed about their futures this week.

He said: “We spoke to him and he has got to speak to his agent now and see where he is at.

“I think that we are negotiating with Sean at the minute, so we will see.”

The interim head coach confirmed reports that the out-of-contract players had been told whether they were still in the club’s plans for next season this week.

Gunning said that he believed it was fair to the players to give them clarity on their situations ahead of playing in the final game of the season.

He said: “We thought that as a club going forward, it would be best to let the guys who are going to be let go know, we have told them but we would hope that most of them will still be involved at the weekend.

“We will know when all of the names come out [who has been let go], so to single somebody out wouldn’t be right of me.

“I think that you could bring the lads in next Monday and then tell them, but I think that it is only fair to tell them because some of them might not want to play and risk injury. It is being respectful to them.

“Nobody has said that [they don’t want to play against Morecambe] but if it comes to it tomorrow and they do that then I will respect it.”