Koeman – Rodriguez will come back stronger

Southampton manager Ronald Koeman has backed forward Jay Rodriguez to come back from his injury and be stronger than before.

The English forward has been ruled out for up to two months after surgery on a foot injury but Koeman has backed Rodriguez to come back stronger and rediscover his best form.

It has been a tough year-and-a-half for Rodriguez. During the 2013/14 season Rodriguez was flying in the Premier League for Southampton and had scored 15 league goals. However, he went off injured against Manchester City late in the season and had to wait 18 months before his next competitive appearance for the club; earlier this season.

Despite his evident problems, Koeman still believes that Rodriguez can come back firing for the second half of the season and still play a big part in Southampton’s season.

He’s ok.

Of course he was disappointed about that final decision.

I think it was only the solution to bring Jay fit again and he will start next week and be out for seven or eight weeks.

We hope he will come back as a player to help the team because we need that kind of players.

It’s for the player by himself because it’s also a mental question of how you deal with that kind of disappointment.

He’s strong and still young and he will come back and will be the player what he was, but he needs more time than everybody likes of Jay.

I hope he can be a big part in the last part of the season.

Do you think Rodriguez can get back to his best or is he never going to fully recover?