Bristol City are still hoping to tie up striker Famara Diedhiou to a new deal and end speculation over his future.
Diedhiou went away with the Senegalese national squad - leading the line for the Lions of Teranga in their 3-1 loss to Morocco - recently and needed to be covid tested upon return to Ashton Gate, as every international player had to be on return to the club.
All is well for the striker, though he was not required from off the bench as the Robins drew 2-2 with Barnsley on Saturday.
And Bristol Live asked Dean Holden if that was contract related - and whether the 27-year-old powerhouse forward is still in the head coach's plans for the rest of the season, with no new deal agreed and a couple of months before a contract can be agreed with a foreign team for a free transfer.
"Of course, 100 per cent [he is in Holden's plans and will still play]. The contract talks are going well," Holden explained at the pre-Middlesbrough press conference.
"I'm in touch with Mark [Ashton] who is in touch with Fam and his agent regularly and there's no issue at all with that. That will never come into my thinking with team selection.
"From the weekend, he'd had a strange couple of weeks which had culminated with his trip back from Senegal and he had to do a covid test but it was very, very late on Saturday before we even got the test result back.
"It was a decision taken purely based on that.
"Famara's a huge weapon for us and will feature as the games come by. I think we've got six games in the next 17 days.
"I spoke to the group this morning and the majority of the lads will get some game time," he said.
The head coach explained that the team selection will be assessed game by game instead of any planned rotation of players, with City facing seven games over 21 days in a block of fixtures between the international windows.
Chris Martin will be assessed after possibly picking up a knock at the weekend against the Tykes.
