Irish eyes might have been smiling on Tuesday night as they qualified for the European Championships in France, but Dutch ones in Southampton certainly weren't as Ronald Koeman expressed his "surprise" that Shane Long was played for so long.

Shane Long was allowed by Saints to join up with the Irish squad ahead of their 2nd leg play off game against Bosnia & Herzegovina, but clearly Ronald Koeman feels that Martin O'Neill abused Saints generosity.

Given that the player had not played for five weeks and that he had not been fit enough to join the squad for the away leg the previous Friday, it was clear that Koeman expected Long to only be used in an emergency and then sparingly.

With the Irish 1-0 up early in the 2nd half, yes the game was still in the balance, but it was in Ireland's favour and far from the last gasp situation that Saints clearly were willing to let Long be plunged into as Koeman himself has now commented.

Koeman said: "I was very surprised he played 40 minutes.

"The player didn't train for five or six weeks, had only one training session on the Sunday and that is why I was surprised.

"The doctor Steve Barnes had contact with the Irish medical staff and my information was that he wasn't 100 per cent fit.

"In my opinion a player needs more training before playing 40 minutes but I understand because it was an important game which meant he country qualified for Euro 2016.

"But if I'm a national coach I don't put a player after five or six weeks with injury and one training session into an important game."

Clearly the Saints manager feels his player was risked not only unnecessarily, but for far too long given his fitness levels and that could impact on how much he can be used for Saints against Stoke on Saturday.

Photo: Action Images

birminghamsaint added 09:48 - Nov 20 Fortunately he got through without injury. Nowadays players seem to get injured in training because training has to be nearly as intensive as playing an actual game, so I'm never quite sure how players ever achieve 100% fitness over a very long season. At least he has had some 'game time' which he is unlikely to get with Saints at the moment.
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Whatsforpud added 10:14 - Nov 20 Isn't playing the best form of training? It was less than a full half anyway. We might need him in the second half to hit the ground running.
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BaselSaint added 12:30 - Nov 20 Keane and O`Neill don't give a toss about Saints. Of course they played him for too long - no pun intended. I will never forget the last day of the season when we were relegated from the Prem and Keane made a special effort to come over and gesture to the Saints fans. He really is a sociopathic ungracious man.
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schatfield added 12:44 - Nov 20 @BaselSaint, I too remember Keane for that exact same reason.....never liked the guy after his smirk at our relegation
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IWOZTHERE added 15:30 - Nov 20 I agree about the 'game time' and that offensive thug Keane. Right or wrong, Ron was unhappy but reading most of the headlines you'd have thought he was in a frenzied murderous rage!
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