Talks are ongoing but Haring, who could make his return against St Mirren on Saturday after a seven-week lay-off for a hernia operation, is keen to commit his future to the club.

He said: "It's an honour for me that the club came to me that early to tell me they want to extend my contract.

"I know what the gaffer wants and the gaffer knows what I want. There is no pressure on time because I still have 18 months left so I'm just taking it easy.

"It's important for the club to have some stability and to try to build that.

"That's what the gaffer is trying to do. If you can see a club trying to build something, then that for you as a player is something you of course want to be part of."

Haring's ability to control the centre of the park was a key attribute as Hearts stormed to the top of the table in the early weeks of the season.

However, injuries to some of Levein's other influential figures like Steven Naismith, Christophe Berra, John Souttar and Uche Ikpeazu saw momentum stall.

Haring put off his own surgery to help out the Edinburgh side but even that did not prevent a worrying slide down the table.

They now sit fifth having regained some of their early form, but Haring rejected suggestions failure to pick up a European slot at the very least would be a failure given their exploits in the campaign's opening weeks.

"It's hard to say (it would be a failure)," he said. "This season we've had a lot of ups and downs but this season has been kind of special with the run we had at the start then the injuries.

"But we can still reach our goals. We're not too many points behind the teams above and we're remaining positive.

"Europe is our target. That's where we want to be at the end of the season, definitely. We want to make the top four at least then play for Europe next season."

Meanwhile, Craig Levein has backed keeper Colin Doyle to bounce back from the last-minute blunder that handed Motherwell victory last weekend.

He said: "Fir Park is done. There was obviously disappointment for everybody after the game but it's about moving on and staying positive.

"Colin's fine. Experienced players tend to get over mistakes quicker than the younger lads.

"He's apologised to everybody. Mistakes happen – it's just unfortunate that it came in the last minute and there was not time to do anything about it.

"The human response is to want to make up for it as quickly as possible and I've sensed that from him."

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