Mick McCarthy today declared Wolves’ interest in Christophe Berra and Jason Shackell was ‘dead’ as he hinted at another chance for transfer-listed Darren Ward.

The Wolves boss wants another central defender and has had bids of £1.5m and £1m respectively for Berra and Shackell rejected by Hearts and Norwich.

“I’m still hopeful of getting another one,” said McCarthy.

“We had a bid in for Berra, but that deal is dead, as is the Jason Shackell one. They won’t be done at all.

“Hearts are saying he won’t be going anywhere, Shackell is not going to happen, so I’ve moved on from those. There are no other bids in. For the moment, those deals are dead as far as I’m concerned and we’re looking elsewhere.

“Who we get I don’t know. It might be that someone comes out from completely out of the blue from somewhere which has never been mentioned.

“But Darren Ward’s still here and he’s been exemplorary in his professionalism.

“And while we’re still looking, I’ve still got four centre-halves with Darren Ward. He’s on the list and we’ll see what happens.

McCarthy, who won’t be taking another look at Cypriot midfielder Valentino Sheilis, believes Ian Harte can challenge George Elokobi for the left-back slot – because he doesn’t see Michael Gray and Daniel Jones as left-backs.

“Ian Harte is training with us and will be travelling to Scotland,” he said.

“He’s here for a couple of weeks and we’ll see what he looks like.

“He’s a free agent, he’s 30, he’s got great quality, he’s got good experience with 64 caps, so we’ll have a look at him. George Elokobi is our first choice left-back but we don’t have any real left-sided cover.”