Diouf, 27, recently declared his intention to quit the Trotters this summer regardless of whether the club preserved their Premier League status.

But Megson is refusing to rule out the prospect of keeping him beyond the summer, and warned that only a significant fee would persuade Bolton to sell the former Liverpool forward, who has been linked with moves to France and Spain.

Diouf has only one year remaining on his contract and Bolton risk losing him to a Bosman transfer next summer if he stays at the club on his existing deal.

"He has made this statement about this being his last season," said Megson.

"But he's a great character and I know him well enough to know he will say one thing one minute and another thing the next.

"He's a temperamental person and I don't want him to go anywhere.

"Having said that, if somebody does come in for him they are going to have to pay a lot of money to get him.

"Then they're going to have pay Dioufy what we pay him in wages - which is a lot of money as well."

Diouf struggled badly at times during the past season and his performances and commitment were brought into question by his own team-mates.

Yet he remains a crowd favourite, and lived up to his billing by scoring in the recent 2-0 win against Sunderland which all but ended the threat of relegation.

It was only his sixth goal of the season but Megson said: "He got six goals this season but I think he's capable of getting way more than that.

"It's not a done deal that he will be going and there have to be a lot of things that trigger any move.

"He was in yesterday, dressed as a basketball player, in his purple and yellow and his hat and all the other stuff that he wears.

"I don't want him to go but if he does then it will be the best for Bolton and nothing else - and we'll make sure we get a good fee for him."

Megson is currently in discussions with a number of his squad about their futures, with five players out of contract and three others having returned to their parent clubs after loan spells.

Ivan Campo, Jussi Jaaskelainen, Ricardo Gardner, Andranik Teymourian and Stelios Giannakopoulos' contracts are due to expire while loanees Danny Guthrie, Mikel Alonso and Grzegorz Rasiak have returned to Liverpool, Real Sociedad and Southampton respectively.