Ralph Hasenhuttl has revealed that new central defender will not be available for the first few weeks of the season as the club look to bring him up to full fitness, find out more about what Ralph thinks of his new signing here.
Mohamed Salisu is far from being fit for the start of the season tomorrow and indeed it could be around 4 weeks before he is ready for first team action according to Saints boss Ralph Hasenhuttl
The problem is that Salisu has not played a game since the 1st July and ended the season with a muscle injury that kept him from playing the last part of the season, in total he managed only 4 games after the season resumed in La Liga in June and he is now gone 10 weeks since playing an actual match.
So before joining Saints he had not had the benefits of a pre season and indeed after his arrival in England less than a month ago he then had to quarantine for the next 2 weeks.
So he has had less than a fortnight at Staplewood and only trained fully with his new team mates for the first time this week , the Saints coaching staff have had to ensure there is no flare up of the muscle injury that kept him out in July and then build his fitness back up.
Therefore Ralph feels that it will be mid October before he is ready to start a game.
"It may take a few more weeks, maybe, after the next international break [in October], I hope to have him in the first eleven. He has good drive and is a very ambitious guy."
"He is working hard on his fitness at the moment after a long break from injury and there are a few issues we must work on but you can see his physicality."
The Austrian has been impressed though in the first few days of the Ghanian defenders return to full training.
"The potential he has is amazing and he wants to learn quick. He is exactly the type of player that we need to have here"
"We have very clear and strict limits on any transfer we make. We have to have a player that really likes to come to us for money we can spend."
"If we find such a player then I am sure he will enjoy it and develop very quickly when he is with us."
"He will not be a short-term project, he will be more of a long-term project. Therefore I think he was a fantastic transfer."
The last paragraph of the transcript is a little disappointing in that most Saints supporters were hoping that Salisu would be ready for the first team now, but still only 21 he clearly has a lot to learn, but it seems he is the type who can do so quickly"