West Coast’s co-captain Oscar Allen has made the staggering admission that his contract talks with the Eagles have “broken down”.

Allen, who has only managed 12 games this year, has been heavily linked to a move to the Brisbane Lions with reports suggesting there is a long-term offer on the table.

And now that move seems highly likely with the 26-year-old still without a contract from the Eagles.

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“Clearly I haven’t signed a contract with the club,” Allen said on Perth radio station Mix94.5’s Pete & Kymba with Ben Cousins.

“Negotiations have kind of broken down to a certain extent.

“People think I’m lying to them when I say I’m not sure what’s going on. We’re genuinely still trying to figure things out.”

Allen is a restricted free agent so West Coast are allowed to match any offer put forward for Allen, if they want to keep the forward.

But the talented star has only managed 23 games over the past two seasons and this year had knee surgery in June after battling calf and Achilles injuries.

“Contracts go through until the end of October, and that’s when the free agency period starts, so there’s still six weeks for myself and the club to have communication or to agree with the deal elsewhere,” Allen said.

“Probably another, I suppose, complex way to it is I’m a restricted free agent, so what that means is, whatever contract, if I was to accept the contract elsewhere, West Coast has the right to match that contract as well.

“So there’s still a lot of water that can go under the bridge because, for instance, everyone’s saying that I accept a contract elsewhere, West Coast can say, ‘Oh, we actually want to match that contract’, and you’ll stay contracted to West Coast going forward.

“So there’s a lot of stuff still to be figured out, and a lot of stuff that’s kind of out of my control as well.

“This is where managers are really important because they can look after the situation. For me, it’s their job to know everything that’s going on, so there’s plenty of water, as I said, to go under the bridge.”

West Coast coach Andrew McQualter was quizzed about Allen’s surprise admission during a media conference on Thursday.

“We’ve been in constant dialogue with Oscar and his management all year. So we’re still working through it,” McQualter said.

“He’s a restricted free agent. We understand the position of where that lies within the industry, but we see Oscar as a required player.

“I haven’t heard the comments (from Allen on Thursday) so I cant speak exactly to them, but as I said, we’ve got a list management team, we’re in constant dialogue and we’ll work through that.”