Ronald Koeman has branded the 2015 fixture schedule as “impossible” and believes players may suffer injuries as a result.

Saints’ international stars could have as little as a three-week break at the end of the season, and just six and a half weeks between competitive fixtures from one campaign to the next.

It is the overarching fixture schedule that is causing the problems, and frustrating Koeman.

He admitted: “It’s impossible (the schedule for international players), because it’s so difficult.

“They have three weeks off in a whole year. I mentioned before, there is not any sports in the world that sports people has only three weeks off. That’s crazy, but ok.

“We start the Premier League I think one week earlier than this season and we have the Europeans after the season.

“It’s crazy, it’s not a question why players get hamstring problems, injuries – it’s normal after that season what the Premier League is.”

Chairman Ralph Krueger has spoken about the possibility of taking the squad to the USA on a pre-season tour, but that looks increasingly difficult to fit in given the schedule and uncertainty over whether Saints will need to participate in Europa League qualifiers.

Saints do not finish this season until May 24, and then will see most of the squad required for international fixtures that last until the middle of June.

In the best case scenario there are eight weeks between then and a resumption of competitive action, with the new Premier League season set to begin early on August 8 due to Euro 2016.

However, if Saints won the Europa League spot attached to the League Cup, which seems certain to be allocated to the Premier League after Chelsea won the trophy, they would need to play their first qualification match on July 30 – just six and a half weeks after the international fixtures.

Saints are set to begin pre-season on June 25, mainly with just the under-21s with the international stars given a three week break. That would mean they would not return until July 6, just three and a half weeks before a potential qualifier.

Koeman is open to the idea of a tour abroad for commercial reasons, but does not want it to fall on either the first or last ten days of pre-season.

That means a trip to the USA looks tricky if Saints don’t have early qualifiers, and virtually impossible if they do. There is the added headache that their European status may not be confirmed one way or the other until the final day of the season given how tight the table is.

“One is what’s good for the club. When it’s a commercial thing for the club, ok, I like to listen, but travelling the whole pre-season around the world I think it’s not good,” said Koeman of a potential trip to far flung shores.

“It’s not good for the physical state of the players, because normally during a Premier League you don’t get a lot of time for training.

“You need that to do in the pre-season, but it’s a little bit when that’s in balance there’s no problem.

“If they ask me to go to America for one week, ten days, ok, but not the last ten days before starting the Premier League, not the first ten days, and then it’s a possibility, because I think the most important always is the football side.

“I know and I realise that the money, the commercial – but we need to be fresh at the first day when the Premier League starts.”

The other Europa League scenarios are that finishing fifth sees an automatic entry to the group stages, meaning no games in that competition until September.

A potential place from the FA Cup winners would produce the same result.

The Champions League would also not get underway until the season was up and running.

The schedule certainly doesn’t look as if it gives ample time for players to recover from one season and prepare for another and Koeman added: “It’s difficult. We will start I think with the under-21s, because the rest still have holiday, because normally we planned to start the new pre-season at the 25, 26 of June and I think they’ve stopped around 14, 15 June with international games and at least they get three weeks holiday, because they need it.

“It’s more an individual programme in the last few years what you are doing with your team than really a team pre-season. It’s more individual pre-season.”