Jay Rodriguez's Southampton career didn't reach a brilliant conclusion due to a poor fatigue record and now, that will delay his chance to play at St. Mary's.
In over two decades of testing forwards to fill Matt Le Tissier's void, Southampton fans can only say Rickie Lambert's scoring came anywhere near the mark. But, Saints weren't lucky in terms of Lambert's age because he was on the older side of 30 where a player's career is more about catching fatigues than form.
Then, Jay Rodriguez was meant to be the future front three leader and this wasn't down to mere potential. Infact, Jay was the first Saints attacker to had overtaken Lambert as the club's leading scorer for the first time in five campaigns.
Clearly, his promise was there but a string of injuries limited his stay at St. Mary's to extend Lambert's by only three years. Yes, the £12m compensation was the only great thing after his poor fitness issues arose, which hasn't stopped impacting Rodriguez's career even now.
Rodriguez may have to wait until new year to face Saints
Currently, he finds himself on Wrexham's books and could have been dreaming of visiting the St. Mary's within ten days. An interesting thing would have been to watch him get on the score sheet, not for Southampton to lose but for Rodriguez to net his maiden strike against Saints.
At first, it's surreal to believe but the 36-year-old is yet to experience the goalscorer's taste despite registering victories over a Southampton lineup.
However, that goals column won't take off from zero until next year as the Leader Live quoted Wrexham manager Phil Parkinson saying: "Jay suffered pain in his right ankle in Australia and he's also been in a boot. He's due to see a specialist next week so we can get to the bottom of it."
One would hope, Wrexham aren't playing catch up with the relegation zone by the time he is cleared to feature in sporting action.