Morecambe striker has been offered a new contract

The front man returned to the Shrimps’ squad at Oxford United on Saturday after missing the games against Fleetwood Town and Bolton Wanderers through illness and played 45 minutes in the dogged draw at the Kassam Stadium.

With the transfer deadline looming on September 1, speculation about Stockton’s future continues to dominate with Adams admitting the club had received some ‘derisory’ bids for the 28-year-old.

Adams said: “He’s been ill for the past week. He trained yesterday (Friday) and we put him on the bench. He came on for the second half with Dylan Connolly and did well.

“At this moment in time, we have had no bid that has been accepted. We’ve had a couple of bids that have been derisory to say the least and we won’t be allowing him to leave for that.

“The owners have a value for him, he knows that, and we’ve spoken to him. When you sign a contract you have to stay until the owners say you can go or otherwise.

“We would like him to stay. We’ve offered him a new contract, we’ve offered him to be the highest-paid player at the club.”

Morecambe are back in action on Tuesday when they travel to Rotherham United in the Carabao Cup.

Adams believes the number of games his team will play in August – eight in total – has been difficult from a managerial and playing perspective.

Max Melbourne is out for some time after pulling a muscle against Bolton last midweek, while Ash Hunter lasted only five minutes at Oxford with Adams saying back-to-back games across the month are tough.

He said: “The amount of games we have had to play in the month of August has been really, really hard.

“We have had to play cup and league games back to back and that has been difficult from a management point of view.

“If you don’t have a big squad, you are going to come into a bit of difficulty – and that is what happened with Ash Hunter and is something we are going to have to manage.”