SAINTS’ boss Ralph Hasenhuttl has said “the last word is not spoken,” regarding discussions on a potential ban for Premier League teams playing new signings in postponed matches.

The Austrian revealed that discussions were had in a Premier League meeting about whether players should be able to play if they were signed after the initial planned date for a match.

For example, Newcastle have rearranged matches with Everton and Saints to pick up this year but have today signed experienced full-back Kieran Tripper – who bolsters their squad massively.

Hasenhuttl thinks that a decision could still yet be made on whether he, for example, should be able to play in any rearranged games that were due to take place before his arrival at Magpies.

The idea would be to avoid an unfair advantage that wasn’t present before the COVID and injury-induced postponements – and he admits it could now favour Saints too, with new owners allowing for some January business.

Asked about the idea ahead of the FA Cup visit to Swansea, Hasenhuttl said: “Yeah but here also, the last word is not spoken.

“I mean, we were discussing in the last Premier League meeting about what happens with the winter signings for the postponed games, if they are allowed to play or not.”

He continued: “It’s for us the same. We can also now with our new owners sign a few players and then I think it is not really fair to play against teams in games that have been postponed for example.

“I think the last word is there not spoken so far. In the end, yes I was disappointed that we couldn’t play because we have been in good shape.

“We also had five cases in COVID and it’s not long ago that we had to fill up a team with nine academy players and getting a big defeat against Man United - everybody knows this.”

Newcastle’s visit to St Mary’s, which was originally scheduled for January, 2, was postponed in a cloud of controversy, as nobody is aware of what the exact numbers of COVID and injuries were.

Under Premier League’s new rules, if a club have under 14 outfield senior players and a goalkeeper then they are able to postpone – but Saints have been well below that threshold before COVID and had to play on.

Star forwards Callum Wilson and Allan Saint-Maximin were both injured for Newcastle, but they didn’t have to play any of their games.

“I was disappointed this game didn’t happen,” Saints’ manager admitted. “I didn’t know about the exact situation, how it was in Newcastle, nobody knows it.

“It makes it difficult to speak about it but it was clear that everybody, not only me was disappointed this game didn’t happen on January 2.

“Everybody has time to watch, people have time to go to the stadium and then they don’t have the game. It was not good for us.”