Rocky Bushiri has hinted that he wants to extend his stay at Hibs beyond the summer.
The mercurial DR Congo defender has been with the Leith club since January 2022 when he initially signed on loan.
An option to buy clause was then triggered in the summer of that year and Bushiri put pen to paper on a three-year contract.
That deal is now set to expire in 2025 with Bushiri having made 86 appearances for the Hibees so far. But the 25-year-old appears to be keen on thrashing out a new contract with the Hibs hierarchy having made an impact in recent weeks.
Bushiri couldn’t buy a game at the start of the season, but manager David Gray has started him in the last 10 Premiership clashes which has saw the centre-back score twice and notch an assist.
Rocky Bushiri on potential Hibs contract talks
“Regarding my future, my contract is out at the end of the season but I feel good here”, Bushiri told the Hibs Observer.
“The last few months have been the busiest of the season and Hibernian wanted to put that behind us before discussing a new contract. I expect we will talk about it soon.
“Stability has always been the goal for me. It was my own fault that I didn’t manage to settle somewhere. But when you’re young and a central defender, you have to try, you have to learn and progress.
“Finally being settled and not moving is nice. We are on a run of one defeat in nine games and the only defeat was at Celtic, whose level we know. But we certainly can’t believe we’ve arrived despite such a run.
“As for my personal situation, I had to be patient. It was difficult to be put on the bench like that after being considered a key player, but I worked hard, because everything goes very quickly in football…and this is the proof.”
David Gray’s praise for Bushiri after Rangers draw
Bushiri played a vital role in Hibs’ thrilling 3-3 draw with Rangers last weekend and Gray, despite admitting the defender made some mistakes, was happy with his display.
Gray said: “Firstly, you need to credit Rocky for his performance. Yes, there were errors within it, of course.
“He wasn’t the only one. Even myself, tactically, jumping in at the wrong times or maybe not quite getting the message on (to the park). We need to look at that, because when you lose three goals, there’s definitely areas to improve.
“But I think when you then show the character from making a mistake or having to deal with that, there’s no better way to do it than to go and score a goal. But then also, not just that, how he performed in other moments within the game.
“Rocky, obviously, scores the goal and does great in the game. But collectively, in the second half, I thought the effort and the desire were clearly there from everybody.”