Time is ticking for Mason, Brittain and Walsh to make Dons returns

The door is not shut on Joe Walsh, Callum Brittain and Joe Mason to make a return to MK Dons despite being out of contract at Stadium MK.

The trio saw their deals expire at the end of the season, and though new deals are on the table for them to stay at the club, as yet none have put pen to paper.

Dons returned to pre-season training last week, with the three absent after the coronavirus pandemic curtailed last season back in March.

While Mason was on the list of players released by the club, Martin said he was keen to retain the striker, while both Walsh and Brittain had offers to stay. But with the season set to start in September, Martin admitted he cannot wait forever for the three to sign.

"It's ongoing," he said. "With Callum and Joe (Walsh), they're entitled to see what's out there. Football has been affected financially, us included, and they're both in dialogue with their agents. We'll have to wait and see with each of them.

The contract offers are there, as they are with Joe Mason as well. So we'll have to wait and see, but they are free to discuss the contract and come back. But there will come a time when a decision has to be made either way. They have a little but of time to come back to us, but we're just waiting. It's not a case that the offer is left there and we're not talking to anyone for a while, we're in constant contact with them, and hopefully it's sorted one way or the other soon."

After releasing Jordan Moore-Taylor in June as well, the potential loss of Walsh and Brittain would leave Dons with a threadbare defence, though Dons have added full-back Daniel Harvie to their ranks since. Martin though is keen to add numbers to his back line for the forthcoming campaign.

He added: "It was always the area of focus for us to improve, we need to add strength in there. We've worked really hard over the time to make sure we have a succession plan. If we miss our number one targets, we move onto our number two targets. I'm comfortable with who we have on the lists and where we are in terms of discussions with clubs.

"We want to do our business as early as possible, which is why those contract offers have a time-limit, but until then, we've got a really strong squad. We've kept most of the spine of the team and we will be adding a few more players in the next week or two which will really strengthen us."