Adelaide coach Matthew Nicks is uncertain if midfielder Brad Crouch will stay at the AFL club next season.
Crouch has said he wants to remain at the Crows but concedes the club may seek a trade deal to bolster their hand at this year’s draft.
The reigning club champion falls off-contract and becomes a free agent at the end of this season but is sidelined by a hamstring strain.
“There’s a lot of commentary about,” Nicks told reporters on Friday.
“It’s both sides of the coin. We want to work out exactly what he is looking to do longer term and he’s talking to us in the same manner.”
Negotiations between Crouch’s management and the Crows’ list management team continue, but Nicks says he has put his individual talks with the star midfielder on hold.
“At the moment his focus is 100 per cent on getting himself back so he can play some footy and get himself right,” Nicks said.
“So we have put some talks on hold just between he and I.
“But I know there’s ongoing discussions with his management and our list management.
“He has given an inclination that he would like to stay, in our conversations we’re openly talking through that.
“It will just be how it pans out for him and how his management and where our list management go.”
Crouch was linked to Gold Coast at the end of last season.
The 26-year-old has said the Crows, winless in 2020 and in a rebuilding phase, may seek to trade him to bolster their draft hand.
“I really want to stay in Adelaide so it’s a really hard one for me,” he said late last month.
“If the club wanted me to walk, it’s going to be really tough, I would I’d probably have to do it because that’s the best place for the club to go.”