Ruaidhri Higgins plans to 'freshen' up Derry City squad in summer transfer window

​The Limavady man also confirmed that 'freshening' up his table topping squad can only be good for the group but did concede that some players may want to leave to get more regular game time.

"We're always looking to try and improve the squad in each transfer window," he insisted.

"There also might be players who might want to move to get regular first team football. Ollie O'Neill is on-loan, so he's going to go back, Matty Ward has already gone back to Ipswich Town.

"We'll try and freshen things up and it's always good to freshen the group up because it gives people a lift and it's really, really important and I can't stress this enough, how important it is to bring in the right character, because you need winners.

"We need people who are desperate to win and succeed and that's the type of players that we want."

Higgins also dismissed speculation on social media this week that midfielder Brandon Kavanagh and striker Cian Kavanagh could be departing for Cork City.

"It's not true, someone has plucked that out of thin air," he added. "Cork showed an interest in Brandon in the last window, but that's false information."

Higgins confirmed that striker Colm Whelan will have exploratory surgery to find out the full extent of his knee injury, which he suffered against champions Shamrock Rovers last month.

His absence will have forced the Derry manager’s hand to delve into the transfer market in search for another striker who can help bolster the Candy Stripes’ title tilt.

"He'll go in over the next couple of days for what they call an exploratory operation,” confirmed Higgins. “They won't know exactly what needs done until they go in. It's something I've never heard of before but that's it," he explained.

"He won't know and we'll not know until he comes out of the surgery what has exactly happened and what the plan for his rehabilitation or the length of his rehabilitation, we'll not know anything until he comes out.

"As I said it's something I've never come across before, but that's where we are and we'll support him regardless of what it is."