Wigan boss Roberto Martinez has ruled out letting left-back Maynor Figueroa leave the club in January.
Latics boss keeping defender until the summer
Wigan boss Roberto Martinez has ruled out letting left-back Maynor Figueroa leave the club in January.
The Honduran international has been linked with a switch to Sunderland in the New Year, with former Latics boss Steve Bruce keen to be reunited with him.
However, Martinez has told his Central American ace that he will not be selling him ahead of next summer's World Cup finals - for his own benefit.
"Obviously we don't want to lose our best performers. Maynor has been outstanding all season, he's been a true professional as well," said Martinez.
"He's got the World Cup in front of him next summer with Honduras and I don't think a change of club would be such a good idea for him before such a big event in his career."
Summer departure
Martinez concedes that he will find it very hard to hang onto Figueroa at the end of the season.
"Might he go in the summer? Probably but until then we'll keep enjoying the quality of his defending and the quality of his free-kicks," he said.
Martinez was speaking after seeing Figueroa score one of the goals of the season as he launched a free-kick from his own half into Thomas Sorensen's top corner as Wigan grabbed a 2-2 draw at Stoke on Saturday.
"We are going to see that goal many times now, the ball went quite flat, not up in the air - but it is his technique," he added.
