Gillingham boss Neil Harris has spoken for the first time about his desire to keep loanee Conor Masterson - and that the defender wants to stay.

Masterson has been a class act in two loans spells from Championship side QPR and an ever-present starter under Harris. He’s out of contract this summer and negotiations are ongoing over a permanent deal at Priestfield.

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The player is out of contract at QPR this summer and although the Gills may have competition for his signature, Harris will be confident of keeping hold of the 24-year-old Irish-born centre-half.

League 1 Exeter City have been touted as a possible alternative for the defender but the Gills will have enough financial muscle to see off that challenge. They managed to lure away midfield man Timothee Dieng from the Grecians in January after paying an undisclosed fee.

Masterson has played 38 league games for the Gills over the past two seasons, first joining in January last year for the battle to stay in League 1. He returned to QPR in the summer and was around their first team in the early stages of the campaign.

When it came to January 2023, he wasn’t getting a look-in at his parent club and the Gills needed a replacement centre-half following Elkan Baggott’s loan switch to Cheltenham. Masterson was the obvious answer and he has been a solid fixture in the back-line ever since.

In those 38 games for Gillingham he’s helped the side to 16 clean sheets.

Harris said: “Conor Masterson has done excellent on his loan and he loves it here, he wants to play for Gillingham next year, and I want to keep him, that’s ongoing. Fingers crossed that’s positive.”

Shrewsbury forward Aiden O’Brien is another player Harris wants to add to his squad for next season but he’s under contract with the League 1 side for another year, which makes that deal more complex.

“I would love to work with Aiden again next year,” Harris said. “He would be a great signing at this level. He is under contract next season with Shrewsbury and so it becomes difficult.”

Gillingham’s other loan players returned to their clubs before the weekend as Harris was keen to streamline his squad in the closing days of the season.

Hakeeb Adelakun has gone back to Lincoln City while Eastleigh forward Tristan Abrahams also departed before the Bank Holiday trip to Salford.

Harris said: “Tristan Abrahams has left us, he will be at pastures new next year. I have already talked about Stuey (O’Keefe) leaving. Jordan Green and Hakeeb Adelakun won’t be with us moving forward. Olly Lee is out of contract.

“Ben Reeves is out of contract and he’s done his cruciate so we will have to see how Ben goes with his recovery. Tim Dieng wasn’t there (on Monday) through injury, but he has done brilliantly for us.

“We are down to 12-13 players that are contracted (beyond the summer) out of the first-team core group, we need to get a couple over the line and then we need to do some good business.”