Ronald Koeman has admitted he is unsure whether Jar Rodriguez will play in the first team this season, but will this mean he will never play again for the club.

Saints manager Ronald Koeman has spoken about the Jay Rodriguez situation.

“That will be the best notice (to have Rodriguez back), but it will be very difficult,” confessed Koeman.

“Still he is not very close to be part of the training session and I don’t know, really I don’t know.

“We don’t press the player. The most important is the health of the player and it will be a pity if he is not playing one game this season, most of all for the player by himself.

“Ok, then the player and we have to wait to next season, but the health and really to come back in the best physical way is the most important for Jay.”

Koeman then elaborated further that Rodriguez rehabilitation has taken longer than expected..

“Yes, of course, because the planning was that he should be back in January, February. Now it is the beginning of March and he’s still not close,” said Koeman.

“Maybe he needs three, four, five weeks more to be part of the group, but it’s difficult.”

He added: “I’m confident that he will come back, but when I don’t know.”

So from this statement it looks like Jay Rodriguez stands little chance of influencing this season for Saints, the only bright light being that when he is fit to return to full training it should not take long for the player to be match fit, with injuries of this nature the player is able to return to training fairly quickly, the issue is physical contact and the turning and twisting of playing a game, however Rodriguez should have been able to do basic fitness training for a while.

But will Rodriguez ever play for the club again, so far there has been no sign of him signing a new deal and plenty of rumours linking him with anyone from Manchester City to Tottenham Hotspur.

With his contract up at the end of the 2015/16 season it is a tricky situation for both club and player and the longer that he is out the more the doubt is cast that he will not return the same player.

So if Saints receive an offer for the player in the summer do they take the money and run
and take the view that getting a reasonable fee for Rodriguez and being able to reinvest that is better than taking the chance he will ever return the same player as he was.

The other issue is that if he hasn't played this season any potential offers may be a lot lower than they are being quoted as now, or that we receive none at all of any note.

That being the case then we have to face having Rodriguez at the club next term knowing that we could probably lose him for nothing at the end of it, in an ideal World the player would be grateful for the support shown to him by the Club over a long rehabilitation and sign a new deal, however would Saints themselves be willing to risk a big long term contract with a player with no guarantees he will be able to resume his career let alone see out a long term contract.

That being the case then it is likely that Saints will have to keep Rodriguez and in May 2016 they will know whether he is the same player or not, if he is then it will be tough but we will have to see him walk for nothing.

Of course Saints would feel hard done by, after all they sigend him to a four year deal and will have seen him miss about 1/3 of that through injury, perhaps there is a case in football for time missed for long term injuries to be added to the end of a contract so that clubs get value for money for their signings.

Older supporters will remember a plethora of signings in the late 90's where the likes of David Hirst, Mark Draper, John Beresford, David Howells all arrived at the club with big contracts and got injured fairly early in their Saints careers with Saints paying them big money (for Saints at least back then) to be unable to play.

Photo: Action Images

ChristchurchSaint added 10:33 - Mar 3 You probably have a very valid point there, Nick. It is unlikely that any club will be prepared to make a substantial bid based on what J-Rod has done in the past, rather than what he is capable of now. Sadly, I think our only hope is that he returns as a "good" player rather than "excellent" one, we don't get any offers, so he signs a new contract and then his forms returns. There are a lot of ifs and buts here, so we will have to be patient and see how he returns (if he does.)

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SonicBoom added 10:56 - Mar 3 We should slap a low transfer fee on him. Not too low, just enough so it looks like we are trying to tempt other clubs. They'll be suspicious that we are trying to offload him as he's crocked and no one will touch him. Result! Unless he really is crocked when we should slap a big fee on him to make it look like he's recovered. Meh this Les Reed stuff is easy.....
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saintsnutcase added 12:27 - Mar 3 Just think how good this season could have been if JRod had been fit, and Osvaldo had been as good as we hoped. We have been unlucky -- two top class Prem strikers, who we have paid for, both went missing.
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simmo400 added 15:41 - Mar 3 Wouldnt think he could pass a medical at the moment so who knows what will happen. Hes got a year left and the summer to fully mend. If he is fit for next year he can crack in a few goals and leave in January if he likes.
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