Ralph Hasenhuttl has revealed that new central defender will not be available for the first few weeks of the season as the club look to bring him up to full fitness, find out more about what Ralph thinks of his new signing here.

Mohamed Salisu is far from being fit for the start of the season tomorrow and indeed it could be around 4 weeks before he is ready for first team action according to Saints boss Ralph Hasenhuttl

The problem is that Salisu has not played a game since the 1st July and ended the season with a muscle injury that kept him from playing the last part of the season, in total he managed only 4 games after the season resumed in La Liga in June and he is now gone 10 weeks since playing an actual match.

So before joining Saints he had not had the benefits of a pre season and indeed after his arrival in England less than a month ago he then had to quarantine for the next 2 weeks.

So he has had less than a fortnight at Staplewood and only trained fully with his new team mates for the first time this week , the Saints coaching staff have had to ensure there is no flare up of the muscle injury that kept him out in July and then build his fitness back up.

Therefore Ralph feels that it will be mid October before he is ready to start a game.

"It may take a few more weeks, maybe, after the next international break [in October], I hope to have him in the first eleven. He has good drive and is a very ambitious guy."

"He is working hard on his fitness at the moment after a long break from injury and there are a few issues we must work on but you can see his physicality."

The Austrian has been impressed though in the first few days of the Ghanian defenders return to full training.

"The potential he has is amazing and he wants to learn quick. He is exactly the type of player that we need to have here"

"We have very clear and strict limits on any transfer we make. We have to have a player that really likes to come to us for money we can spend."

"If we find such a player then I am sure he will enjoy it and develop very quickly when he is with us."

"He will not be a short-term project, he will be more of a long-term project. Therefore I think he was a fantastic transfer."

The last paragraph of the transcript is a little disappointing in that most Saints supporters were hoping that Salisu would be ready for the first team now, but still only 21 he clearly has a lot to learn, but it seems he is the type who can do so quickly"

Photo: Action Images

WestSussexSaint added 08:10 - Sep 11 This should not be a surprise. Ralph’s teams require a level of fitness few other sides do and especially for players recovering for an injury it will be initially very hard to get to the level needed. Its no surprise that we have been linked with other CB options which are a bit more ready to hit the ground running and have the level of experience to play alongside a talented youngster. It’s also not the massive urgency it perhaps was this time last season provided Stephens and Bednarek carry on from the end of last season.

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A_Saint_in_Stoke added 08:16 - Sep 11 Have we bought another crock? - bloody hell guys these - they are supposed to be super athletes ... what the hell has he been doing during lock down ? ... pissing some of his over large salary and on piling on the pounds? .... seems like he really wants to play for us !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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SaintPaulVW added 09:49 - Sep 11 Seems sensible. They worked wonders with Ings after that first season on loan where injuries seemed to keep flaring up. (I'm not too sure which medical team takes precedence for a player in a loan deal) Except for a few notable exceptions, players, even if fully fit, normally seem to take up to a season to settle in.
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60yearsandcounting added 10:24 - Sep 11 VW makes a good point. Many thought we were buying a crock in Ings; I was amongst the "worried". Last season he looked back to top fitness so I hope that continues. We do seem to have a top-level medical team so I'm sure they know what they are doing with Salisu. More than Scotland do with Stuey A!!! Maybe he should have a "slight pull" for the October internationals and stay home!!

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A1079 added 11:09 - Sep 11 I am sorry, I know this comment won't go down well but this sounds all too familiar. I don't recall at the time there was any concern about fitness and a niggling injury. His joining us has almost been shrouded in mystery when normally the club shouts from the rafters and at the 11th hour before a game we suddenly hear now he is unfit and has an injury. Yes, Ings was an issue but we all knew that from day one and that that would take time so we knew where we stood. I appreciate I am a pessimist which annoys the hell out of some people, but I am starting to have a bad smell about this signing. It feels like de ja vu.

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SanMarco added 11:10 - Sep 11 A pity but it is what it is. Gives us all the chance to rerun the endless debates about the central defence. This means that we really do need to bring another CB in.
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Billeewithers added 12:04 - Sep 11 Both Clough and Shankly used to make most of their new signings work their way into the first team setup. It paid dividends in that it eliminated the potential for injuries due to over exertion in trying to hard to fit in and impress in a strange and relatively unsupported situation. Being new and mostly young men in a high pressure and responsible set up loads up new players physically and emotionally. Look after your investment and ease them in.

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MRHALL93 added 12:05 - Sep 11 If the lads only been training with the squad for a couple of weeks, I think this makes sense. I'd rather wait a month for him to start and look solid instead of rushing him into the first team only to look shakey just because he's our new summer signing. RH has stated before that our CB's main problems are that they can't defend in 1 on 1 circumstance, I'm guessing this is something he'll be working on with Salisu before he can start.

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SaintNick added 12:43 - Sep 11 There are a few pessimistic comments here that try to rake up a few old gripes, fact is he had a pulled muscle , he had played 90 minutes virtually the whole of of the season before lockdown, and then pulled a muscle and missed the final four games. He would have had a break like everyone else at the end of the season and then he signed for Saints 4 weeks ago, he would have probably needed a few days to pack etc as he would be unable to go back and do this as he would normally. He arrived at Saints and straight into quarantine, this means isolation no going out for a run, just staying at an address and not going out unless necessary, perhaps the club will have got him a house with a back garden so he could walk around it, but apart from an excersise bike and a few weights etc, he would have had little time to get or stay fit . There seems to have then been a week to assess his fitness and start a schedule So this week is the first that he has been able to train properly and this being the case getting to full fitness would normally take 6 weeks after a normal 6 week break in the summer So there is nothing sinister about the injury, nothing has been hidden, anyone could have googled the fact he missed those games. So we have not brought a crock, merely someone who had a muscle strain two months ago and has been unable to train properly during the summer, not just because of the injury, but the situation

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schatfield added 12:48 - Sep 11 agree with SaintNick, this isnt a crock, just a minor injury and as we all know, Ralphs team require a huge amount of stamina and fitness in order to play the way he wants. No point rushing a half-working Salisu!
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IWOZTHERE added 13:33 - Sep 11 Hopefully nowt sinister about this. Ralph does seem prone to 'over-egg' acclimatisation? However..... Danso was a strange one?
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richardmdcooper added 15:08 - Sep 11 Reading between the lines, he may well have been the player that tested for Covid - he's been in none of the training gallery pictures on the website until the last couple of days
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A1079 added 16:17 - Sep 11 Yes Nick, I have admitted I am a pessimist, but sometimes that is based on experience, other times it is misplaced paranoia. I doubt you will change me now. I am knocking on the door of 60. Hopefully nothing but a bit of time and training and getting used to the regime will not do. If their is one silver lining to my tendency towards pessimism - I am usually less disappointed than most when things don't turn out the way optimists think they should. Swings and roundabouts I guess.

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