St Johnstone boss Callum Davidson would “ideally” like to see John Mahon head on loan to another Scottish team.
And the Perth manager insisted that the Irish defender still has a future at McDiarmid Park.
Mahon played his part in keeping Saints in the top-flight last season but has struggled for game-time this term.
Performances from those operating at the back have made it difficult to change it up on a regular basis.
Reports from Ireland this week suggested Mahon was set for a return to the League of Ireland and claimed his former club, Sligo Rovers, were “keen”.
Davidson said: “You look at the size of our squad and where we are, how well Alex Mitchell and Ryan McGowan have done.
“It’s been difficult for John to get back in and it’s important he goes and plays. Ideally I’d like him to go to a Scottish team with a view to coming back here. We didn’t bring him in just to let him go.
“He struggled a little bit at the start of the season with chances to play. But he performed really well the last game of the season here under pressure.
“There is potential there, there’s a player there, we just need to find it and get the best out of him.
“There’s a couple of clubs in Ireland, a couple in Scotland interested. It’s important we get him out playing games.
“And I’d say if he went to the Championship in Scotland to play we’d get a true reflection and see where he is.
“He’s played in Ireland already. But what’s right for both parties counts and ultimately it comes down to the player.”
Davidson says he is sitting with a “good, healthy squad” at present and admitted there will “probably be more outs than ins” during the next transfer window.
But he did reveal: “We will look at maybe one or two players to come in to make a real big difference and try and push us to fight for positions higher.
“But I am quite happy with the squad. We’ve Booth, Wotherspoon returning and hopefully Kane returns pretty soon so they are kind of new players coming in to help the squad. If anyone leaves, we are ready to go and get someone in.”
Davidson also provided an update on Charlie Gilmour, who is currently on loan at Cove Rangers and was understood to be attracting the interest of Dundee.
“With Charlie we just assess how he goes,” Davidson said. “We send him on loan to play games.
“Liam Craig has been in regular contact and watched the games he’s played in and got feedback.
“It’s about how much he progresses. He is out of contract, I’d imagine his agent will be working hard for him as agents do.
“I will have a chat with Charlie to see where we are, we’ve not seen much of him the last six weeks with being off and running different training schedules.”
