Jordan Henderson insists he is happy to wait until the end of the season to sign a new contract at Liverpool.
Jordan Henderson: Happy to wait to sign new deal
The midfielder - earmarked by Brendan Rodgers last month as Steven Gerrard's natural heir - is inside the final 18 months of his current deal.
And Gerrard last week urged Liverpool to tie down the futures of both his vice-captain and Raheem Sterling, whose contract is up in 2017.
Henderson told Sky Sports News: "Coming from someone like him it's a massive compliment, but that's just something that could distract me from my football and I don't want that to happen. I think Raheem would be the same.
"We're just really focused on our football, and our agents will sort the other side of things out. Hopefully they can work something out soon, if not then we'll just wait until the end of the season.
"It doesn't really affect us as players. It's not really up to us - it's up to the club and the agent to sort something out, and we just focus on what we're meant to do - that's play football."
Henderson is taking a similar approach to the prospect of succeeding Gerrard as skipper. He said: "To be honest I haven't thought about it all because I don't want it to affect what I'm doing for the team.
"It's up to the manager next season to choose who he thinks is right to be captain, but my focus is on helping the team to be successful this season, and that means winning trophies, trying to get into the top four and winning as many games as we can. At the end of the season we'll see where were at."