The midfielder who made his 100th City first team appearance on Tuesday night at Charlton is out of contract in the summer and has yet to speak about an extension, leaving the City boss fretting on whether the former Brentford man will stay or walk.
"It's an ongoing situation," said Chris Coleman to the CT. "Tabbsy is a player we want to keep at the club - that's obvious because he's been doing very well for us - but he's not agreed a contract.
"We talked with him in the summer, not writing anything down but just to get a feeling of what he wanted. "I'm reluctant to talk to Jay now because we've got a lot of games coming up and we want him to concentrate on his football.
"Anyway, he's not the kind of boy to come in and start talking about a contract - he'll leave that to his agent and the chairman.
"Fingers crossed it will work itself out but we've got to think about the worse-case scenario and we're always looking about for other players anyway because we don't know what's going to happen.
"He's a London boy who lives up here by himself and we have to look at the bigger picture more than just what contract we offer him; it's about where he wants to be.
"I'm hoping and praying he's going to stay with us, but he's going to do what he's going to do.
"If the worse comes to the worst and he decides to move on, whether it's in January or at the end of the season, he'll still give us everything he's got while he's here.
"That's not a conversation I need to have with him because that's the type of player he is. He's a very honest boy, and I'm sure whatever decision he makes will be the right one."