COLCHESTER United face a nervy two-week wait to see if they will hold onto top-scorer David Mooney until the end of the season.

The U’s extended the Irish striker’s loan from Championship club Reading for another six months at the start of January after he hit nine goals in the opening half of the campaign.

However there is no guarantee that he will fulfil that deal as Royals boss Brain McDermott has included a recall option should the club receive a bid for Mooney’s permanent services during this month’s transfer window.

Struggling Championship club Scunthorpe – who have already purchased defender Paul Reid from the U’s this month – are now rumoured to be looking at the 26-year-old.

“The deal is they could sell him during this period of the transfer window,” confirmed Ward. “So that’s always a possibility – assuming David wanted to be sold of course.

“It was a question of was he going to play at Reading if they recalled him? No he wasn’t, so they thought they may as well keep him in the shop window.

“We know that it’s a possibility that they might get an offer from somebody, but at the moment that hasn’t arisen and hopefully it won’t. As far as I’m concerned David Mooney is a player here until Reading tell me otherwise.”

Colchester still have a raft of players set to be out-of-contract this summer including the likes of Steven Gillespie, Matt Heath, Lee Beevers, Medy Elito, Simon Hackney and Mark Cousins. However, Ward – who has handed a new deal to Anthony Wordsworth and cashed in on Marc Tierney and Paul Reid so far this month – says no negotiations will take place until after the window has shut.

“Robbie (Cowling) and I decided that we’d get through this January period and then see where this football club is on the pitch.

“Certainly there are players due to be out of contract I’ll be talking to about staying here and there’ll be some maybe not. I’ve got thoughts in my mind what I’d like to do.

“We’re Colchester United in League One and we can’t hand out five year contracts to keep everyone feeling comfortable, however keeping people on their toes is not a bad thing.”

– For full match preview of Huddersfield v Colchester see today’s EADT.