Stewart unlikely to feature again this season
Manager Russell Martin has revealed striker Ross Stewart is unlikely to feature again this season, with the extent of his hamstring injury worse than initially feared.
The summer signing returned from a lengthy spell on the sideline in November to make his Saints debut, but only made two substitute appearances before suffering a fresh setback.
Providing an update, Martin said: “I think we need to be really honest about Ross and realistic, we probably won’t see him again this season.
“Although it’s short term pain for us, long term we need Ross to have a full pre-season. To then risk him for maybe three or four weeks of this season seems a little bit crazy, but it depends on the situation we’re in.
“We had to rescan his injury to allow the initial swelling and all that to go down and it wasn’t very good news, so he will be out for a longer period. I'm devasted for him, the bad news just keeps coming, unfortunately. But I’m not going to come out here and lie pretending he might be fit, so I think if we say he’s not going to be here this season and then if you do see him at some point, it’s a huge bonus.
“But I think we need to be a bit more long term with Ross now and look after him. I still maintain he will be a brilliant signing for this football club over a long period of time, so we just need to make sure he’s right and ready to hit the ground running in pre-season to then contribute.”
