Nicky Ajose: Swindon Town reject bid from Championship club for striker

Nicky Ajose's 24 league goals made him the second-highest scorer in League One in 2015-16

Swindon Town have rejected a £500,000 bid from an unnamed Championship club for top scorer Nicky Ajose, according to chairman Lee Power.

The 24-year-old striker, who scored 25 goals in all competitions last season, is under contract until 2018.

Head coach Luke Williams has admitted he is planning for life without Ajose and star midfielder Yaser Kasim.

"We did have a bid on Friday for Nicky, £500,000, from a Championship club," Power told BBC Wiltshire.

"We've got other interest from the Championship, so we've turned that down. It didn't meet our evaluation.

"Obviously we want to keep Nicky. By turning that bid down shows that we do.

"Like anything though, everyone has got a price. We'll just have to see how that develops."

Kasim set for Olympic Games

Power also revealed that Kasim could miss the opening matches of the new League One season as he is set to represent Iraq in the Olympic Games.

Iraq have been drawn to face South Africa, Denmark and hosts Brazil in Group A of the men's football competition in Rio. Matches will be played from from 3 to 20 August.

"It's one of those things. It's nice to have recognition and players playing international football, but it does cause you these types of problems," Power said.

"It might be that we're going to miss Yaser for the first few games of the season and there's not a lot we can do about that."

Meanwhile, Power said the club had paid a "sizeable fee" to sign Woking midfielder John Goddard in May, adding: "John was a player that we looked at for a long time.

"There were a number of clubs that were interested in John and we had to pay a sizeable fee, and we're really pleased that we've got him."

The 23-year-old scored 17 goals in 41 National League appearances for Woking in the 2015-16 season.