Aberdeen defender Jack MacKenzie accepts he will have to address his Pittodrie future soon with his contract set to expire in the summer.
MacKenzie will be free to speak to any interested clubs when the winter transfer window opens on January 1.
Boss Jimmy Thelin is keen to secure left-back MacKenzie on a new deal and recently confirmed he had held initial talks with the 24-year-old.
Pittodrie youth academy graduate MacKenzie has been a key component in Thelin’s team that raced to a 16-game unbeaten start to the season before losing 6-0 to Celtic.
MacKenzie’s form saw him receive a first ever call-up to the Scotland squad last month for the UEFA Nations League double header with Croatia and Portugal.
The full-back did not get game time for Scotland and was not named in squad to face Croatia and Poland this month.
On his contract situation, MacKenzie said: “There’s nothing to report, I have been trying my best to focus on the football.
“We’ve had a lot of massive games and I got the Scotland call-up as well, so it has all been going on.
“It’s obviously something I’ll need to think about very shortly.
“I absolutely love it here, I have been here ever since I was a boy and I’ve grown up here.
“I do love the club and have really enjoyed it.
“And I am really enjoying it still. ”
‘A long journey back up the road’
Aberdeen will attempt to immediately bounce back against Dundee tonight from the heavy 6-0 loss to Celtic in the Premier Sports Cup semi-final.
MacKenzie said the journey back to the Granite City from Hampden was tough after such a sobering loss.
However he is confident the Dons remain on the right road under Thelin who had masterminded a 16-game unbeaten run before the semi-final setback.
MacKenzie said: “It was a long journey back up the road because it was a tough one to take.
“There was no getting away from it, Celtic were good on the day but we were not good enough at all.
“Celtic were ruthless but at the same time we didn’t impose ourselves on the game and it was 5-0 after an hour, which isn’t acceptable at all.
“It could have ended up more, even though they didn’t have as many shots as they did at Celtic Park a few weeks before.
“They’re on a great run of form and probably played better again against RB Leipzig (3-1 win) during the week but we’re not focused on Celtic, we’re focused on ourselves.
“And it’s now up to us to get better.”
Watching footage of semi-final loss
Aberdeen boss Thelin and the squad waited a few days before reviewing footage of the defeat at the national stadium.
MacKenzie admits it was a tough watch but they had to endure the video nasty to learn valuable lessons.
He said: “It’s important to watch it back because if you don’t, it can happen again.
“So we watched it, we looked at the clips of what we should have done better.
“It’s good to see that because you can learn.
“Obviously we didn’t watch it back too soon because it can be a bit raw if you do that.
“But by Tuesday it was time to sit down, work out where we went wrong and how we can improve the next time.
“It was obviously a tough weekend but there’s no way we were going to be feeling sorry for ourselves.
“We have been very good in the league so we’re looking to get back to winning ways again against Dundee.
“It has been pretty impressive in the league and we want to get going again.
“We want to keep our good run in the league going.”
‘We are not looking at the table’
Aberdeen are currently level on points with Celtic at the top of the Premiership, although the Hoops have a superior goal advantage.
If the Dons avoid defeat to Dundee at a sold-out Pittodrie tonight they will move clear at the top of the table.
That could only potentially be only for less than 24 hours as Celtic are in action on Sunday.
MacKenzie said: “We are not looking at the table, to be honest.
“So going into the game we’re not focusing on that side of it.
“Come after the game, if we’re top at that stage we’ll be able to enjoy that.
“But going into the Dundee game it’s not something we’ve thought about.”
Conversation