Omar Beckles to leave Shrewsbury Town after rejecting new contract

The popular defender turned down the club's offer of new terms and will move on after boss Sam Ricketts said the club are planning for the new season without him.

Beckles, 28, joined Shrewsbury in the summer of 2017, signing a three-year deal. He had made 126 appearances in all competitions for the club, scoring eight times.

The London-born stopper left a big mark on both the club and community in Shropshire. His tireless charity work surrounding mental health has ensured he leaves a legacy at Salop.

But the defender, who was signed from Accrington Stanley by Paul Hurst and helped Town to the League One play-off final in his first season, has struggled to lock down a starting role in his favoured centre-half position.

Often used on the left side of defence, Beckles has most recently been competing with Aaron Pierre, Ethan Ebanks-Landell and Ro-Shaun Williams at the heart of Ricketts' backline.

Ricketts said: "We made an offer to Omar and that hasn't been taken, so we'll obviously plan without him as we speak at the moment.

"It's up to Omar, I don't know how close he is to doing anything.

"From our point of view, we could only wait so long, so we've had to move on from that option."

Beckles' deal expired on June 30 and the defender has not been in pre-season training with Town.

Asked if the door was closed on Beckles playing for Town next season, Ricketts said: "Yes, it had gone on that long that we couldn't wait any longer on what we had offered, which was a good few months ago now."

Often a threat in the opposition penalty box, Beckles scored three important goals last season, in a home victory over Southend and in Montgomery Waters Meadow draws against Gillingham and MK Dons.

Beckles twice won community player of the season in his time at the Meadow. He was named in the League One team of the year for 2017/18 and became a Grenada international last season.

He regularly went above and beyond delivering talks and seminars, including virtually during the Covid lockdown, on the impact of mental health and will continue to do so with his charity, the Hub365 Foundation.