Wales manager Chris Coleman is prepared to give Joe Ledley time off this week to sort out a new contract if a club comes in him before the transfer window closes at midnight on Thursday.
The Wales midfielder has already turned down offers from clubs in China and Turkey after being released by Crystal Palace. The 30-year-old, who is in line to win his 74th cap against Austria on Saturday, is a free-agent and open to playing anywhere.
He has been linked with moves to two former clubs, Championship table-toppers Cardiff City and Scottish champions Celtic, but time is running out.
Just as he did with West Brom striker Hal Robson-Kanu last year, Coleman is prepared to give Ledley the chance to break camp in the build-up to the vital World Cup qualifier against the Austrians in Cardiff to get his future sorted.
“If it’s good for the player then I’ll allow him to go up to Thursday night. We’ve got Joe Ledley in that position at the moment,” said Coleman.
“It’s his future and he could go and sign for this club or that club – 24 hours in football is a long time. Who’s to say a club might say we’ve got a better offer now.
“I’ve had that as a manager myself. A player stalled, I waited and ended up with a better offer for a better player. If there’s something there for you as a player, you have to go and take it.”
Ledley now finds himself in a similar position to Robson-Kanu, who broke camp to sign for West Borm on transfer deadline day ahead of Wales’ World Cup qualifying opener against Moldova.
“It is disruptive,” admitted Coleman, “but if I’d said to Hal ‘you can’t go there, you have to come here with us because we’ve got a meeting’, he could have missed out on that West Brom deal.
“What are you going to get out of that? For the sake of a night, it’s not a big deal. Luckily most of our players know our plan and I wouldn’t begrudge Joe travelling anywhere if it was for a move he wanted.”
Wales are assessing the fitness of Aaron Ramsey after the midfielder suffered a kick to his calf in Arsenal’s 4-0 Premier League defeat at Liverpool on Sunday.
Ramsey came in for heavy criticism for failing to protect the Arsenal defence at Anfield and was withdrawn at half-time.
Wales already have issues in midfield for the Austria game as they seek to close the four-point gap on Group D front-runners Serbia and the Republic of Ireland.
Joe Allen is suspended, Emyr Huws is out with an Achilles problem and Ledley has not played a club game for nearly seven months.
Leicester’s Andy King and David Edwards, who left Wolves to join Reading last weekend, have also had limited game-time this season.
