Jay Rodriguez is said to be ahead of schedule in his recovery from a devastating knee injury, but Ronald Koeman is placing no timescale on the forward’s return.

Rodriguez was ruled out for at least six months after suffering a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament during Saints’ visit to Manchester City last April.

It was an injury that destroyed any chance of him making the World Cup and also ruled him out for the first few months of this season.

Koeman said the 25-year-old’s rehabilitation is going well, but no return date is being set.

“He’s going very good,” said the Saints manager.

“He is a little bit forward than his problem says – that means that he is doing well, that everything is going in a good way – a good, fast way – but we don’t put pressure about the player.

“Jay has to be in a good shape in the physical way and the mental way, and I look forward, because I didn’t see a lot of Jay playing.

“I saw the clips of last season, and it looks like a new signing that we will have in December or January and we have to wait. But we are doing everything with the medical staff to bring him back how he was.

“That will be a great sign for us in our team.”

Koeman added that Saints must also pay close attention to how last season’s top scorer says he is feeling.

“The most important is the player himself,” he said.

“He needs the confidence in his feeling to be ok for doing the exercises that we planned and that the medical staff planned, but it’s going well.

“That type of injury is very difficult to say ‘It’s six months or seven months’.

“It depends how he is doing, how his body is reacting about the exercises and we will see.”