Doncaster Rovers release seven players but offer contracts to key attacking trio

Grant McCann's men suffered play-off heartache as they lost out on penalties to Crewe Alexandra in a nervy semi-final last Friday night. Now, just five days on, the club has confirmed its stance regarding the 11 players whose deals were due to expire this summer.

Seven players will leave the club once their contracts expire. Goalkeeper Ben Bottomley, defender Charlie Seaman, midfielders Tommy Rowe and Liam Ravenhill and attacking trio Jon Taylor, Maxime Biamou and Caolan Lavery.

Rovers have also confirmed that they've offered deals to influential pair Luke Molyneux and Harrison Biggins as well as Hakeeb Adelakun, who impressed on loan and is set to become a free agent as his contract at parent club Lincoln expires.

It is unclear when the deadline is for those players to agree to the offers made to them. Keeping all three would be a huge fillip to Rovers' promotion chances next season.

Loan quintet Thimothee Lo-Tutala, Tom Nixon, Matthew Craig, Adelakun and Billy Waters have all returned to their parent clubs albeit with the caveat that Adelakun has been offered a deal.

The club has also confirmed they have exercised options on young trio Jack Degruchy, Bobby Faulkner and Tavonga Kuleya but Deji Sotona, who spent the latter part of the season out on loan at Boston, has been transfer-listed.

In addition, three scholars - Freddie Allen, Will Flint and Jake Oram have been offered professional deals but Max Adamson, Justin Bennett, Will Green, Chris Pooley and Harry Wood will be leaving the club.

Rovers players reported back to Cantley Park earlier this week for a debrief before being given their individual training plans to work on over the summer break.

"They've got to stick to the plans," said McCann. "When I came in last summer it was disappointing when we came back from pre-season. Half the group wasn't fit, there were players training with lots of niggles, hence why we had 14, 15 injuries at the time.

"The players will be made very clear that if they aren't fit in the summer they'll be surplus to requirements because there's no way we're going through that and putting our fans through what we saw in the first three or four months of the season."

Rovers discover their fixtures for next season on Wednesday, June 26.

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