Doncaster Rovers 2 Leicester City 1: Sharp shows his value to Rovers with his crucial quickfire double

But he will honour a gentleman’s agreement to let the striker talk to any club who comes in with a £3m offer.

Sharp underlined his value to Rovers’ survival fight with his eighth and ninth goals of the season despite still not being fully recovered from the groin injury sustained in the first match of the season at Brighton – an injury which kept him out of action until October.

Ryan said: “The situation is very simple. If somebody offers us £3m they can talk to Billy Sharp and it’s as we have always said, it is down to Billy, it is up to him. He was the difference between us getting no points or three points. If Billy Sharp had been in the Leicester team it would have been a bit of a different story.

“There has been interest from Southampton, who offered £3.2m and Ipswich, who offered £2.6m but that included (James) Coppinger as well. We don’t want him to go.

“Billy makes the difference with his goals. We don’t want him to go but I have always had a gentleman’s agreement with Billy that if a big club comes in then, yes, he can go.”

Leicester could well be one of the clubs who put in an offer during January as they struggle to make an impression on the promotion race despite the return of former Hull chief Nigel Pearson as manager

It would set up the intriguing possibility of Sharp again linking up with Jermaine Beckford, who formed a deadly partnership with him during a loan spell from Leeds to Scunthorpe in 2007.

Beckford was bought from Everton for £3m by the Foxes but has scored just twice in 14 appearances and was relegated to the bench on Saturday, heading wide in stoppage time as the visitors pressed for an equaliser.

By then, Sharp had turned the game on its head with two goals in two minutes. The first came in the 63rd when strike partner Marc Antoine Fortune crossed from the left and Sharp got between two defenders to head home from close range between the legs of goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel.

The second was a spectacular falling volley into the far corner as Brian Stock, who had an increasing influence on proceedings, chipped the ball across from outside of the area.

It was a worthy match-winner but Sharp said: “I preferred my first goal to be fair. I was just relieved to see it go in because when I headed it I didn’t really put it where I wanted it but it managed to go through the goalkeeper’s legs and it put us back in the game.

“For my second, I just caught it sweet and it was a good feeling to see it going in the net. A goal is a goal to me. I love scoring them and they mean the same to me. We went 1-0 down again but our battling spirit gave us our just rewards.”

Victory was still not enough to take Rovers out of the bottom three but Sharp added: “This is a time when we can catch people. The gaffer has said we hope the opposition have been eating too much turkey and that we are on the ball to get more points to get out of the bottom three as quickly as possible.

“We have just had three very tough games and have won two. I feel we should have won all three but beforehand we would have taken the two. We go to Burnley with the momentum and in a positive mood. I feel as though I am going to score in every game at the minute and I am nearly 100 per cent in terms of fitness although I struggled in the last 10 minutes.”

Rovers chief Dean Saunders was delighted with the way his side had overcome the setback of conceding in the 38th minute when David Nugent curled the ball into the top corner after strike partner Steve Howard had flicked the ball through.

Gary Woods, given his first chance to impress Saunders due to thumb injuries for goalkeeping duo Carl Ikeme and Neil Sullivan, had been powerless to prevent the strike but had made the save of a scrappy first half, going to his left to tip over a header from Howard.

Saunders said: “Leicester have been set up to win the league. They have some great players so a draw would have been a good result for us.

“We needed the points and I have to say the players worked their socks off and we got a result.

“The first goal was a great goalscorer’s goal getting in between two players. Billy has got in the right place and headed it down. His second goal was just brilliant.

“He knew where the ball was going and Brian Stock knew exactly where to put it.”

As he plots a survival campaign, Saunders, who has claimed 18 points from 15 games in charge, added: “We have to win another 10 or 11 games. We have 25 games left. If we lose one, we have to bounce back.”

Doncaster Rovers: Woods, O’Connor, Hird, Beye, Ilunga; Coppinger, Barnes, Stock, Gillett; Sharp, Fortune (Hayter 83). Unused substitutes: Maxted, Bennett, Friend, Dumbuya.

Leicester City: Schmeichel, Peltier, St Ledger, Bamba, Konchesky; Gallagher, Wellens, King, Dyer (Beckford 77); Nugent, Howard. Unused substitutes: Weale, Abe, Fernandes, Tunchev.

Referee: D Sheldrake (Surrey).