Melbourne Victory will hold off on contract talks with midfielder Carlos Hernandez until after the current season. The Costa Rican's two-year loan deal from LD Alajuelense expires on June 30 and the Victory are keen to keep him at the club.

The major factor for Hernandez not remaining a Melbourne player is that the transfer fee to buy him permanently will be too high for the A-League club.

It is tough for the Victory to raise the funds to buy the 26-year old because they cannot sell players within the domestic competition; only transfer fees can come from overseas.

Melbourne coach Ernie Merrick said retaining Hernandez may prove difficult.

"There's a lot more than a transfer fee involved in it. All I'll say is that I think Carlos Hernandez is a fantastic player and he alongside another 14 players will retain the services of all of those players," said Merrick.

"There's too many factors to discuss there. We've got restrictions regarding salary caps, we can't actually transfer players to other clubs within Australia.

"If a team wants a transfer fee then they've got to transfer them out of Australia. There are lots of restrictions regarding the size of the squad and salary caps."