David Moyes says he is shocked that Jermain Defoe’s Sunderland contract allows him to leave on a free transfer following relegation - and he has revealed that injury-prone Jack Rodwell is the only player NOT to be hit by a wage cut.

As revealed by Sportsmail in March, England striker Defoe is available for nothing after a clause was agreed in his deal, which was extended to 2019 last June.

Rodwell, meanwhile, will remain on £60,000 per week in the Championship despite the rest of the squad losing 40 per cent of their Premier League earnings.

Jermain Defoe has been invaluable for Sunderland this season but he could leave for free

David Moyes says if he was manager at the time he wouldn't have inserted clause into contract

Moyes has long since stated that the club he took over last July was plagued with problems behind the scenes, especially when it came to recruitment and contract negotiations.

And he is furious that Defoe’s deal - re-negotiated when Sam Allardyce was manager - means he will lose his star player on a free.

Asked if they were letting their prize asset go for nothing, Moyes said: ‘Yes, we have. I am very surprised.

‘I would hope if I was a manager, I would not have had a contract which would have allowed somebody to leave in that situation. What price might we have got for Jermain Defoe if we had gone down, albeit at his age? A decent price. We have not got that. That’s the way it is. It is a bad deal for us.

’As a club you have to be able to say, “No we can’t (include that)”. We have other players with similar things in their contract, not exactly like Jermain, but there are others.

Moyes says he and the fans are desperate for Defoe to stay on in the Championship next term

The manager has also revealed Jack Rodwell will NOT have to take a pay cut next season

‘It (Defoe clause) is hard to take, but it is there and obviously we have to honour the contract.’ Sunderland rejected a £6million offer from West Ham in January but Moyes says he has no regrets over not cashing in on their 15-goal top scorer.

‘Because I knew about the contract it was playing in the back of my mind,’ he said.

‘But the money we were offered was not enough to turn our heads. We couldn’t do it.’

Moyes still holds a faint hope that the 34-year-old will commit for another season in the second tier, although he admitted: ‘Obviously he's got himself back in the England team. I’m sure he’ll want to push and try to be a member of the World Cup squad, and I think he'll be thinking, “It's hard to do that if I'm a Championship player”.

‘We hope Jermain stays but it's his decision what he does.’

Defoe is likely to look for a move to enable him to stay in the Premier League next season

Rodwell, meanwhile, will be among the highest-paid players in the Championship next season. He signed in a £10m deal from Manchester City three years ago but has started just 42 league games.

For the first 39 of those Sunderland did not win and Rodwell’s first victory as a starter only arrived in February.

The midfielder's deal runs until 2019 and his wages mean it is unlikely Sunderland will be able to sell him this summer.