RONALD KOEMAN could be forced into the transfer market.

As the window reaches its final week, the Saints manager will reassess his options in the wake of the injury to Shane Long.

The Republic of Ireland striker lasted just 14 minutes as a second half sub as Saints were knocked out of the FA Cup 3-2 at the hands of Crystal Palace at St Mary’s on Saturday.

Long clattered into a Palace defender as he chased a ball into the area and left the ground in an ambulance with fractured ribs.

He joins Toby Alderweireld, Morgan Schneiderlin and Victor Wanyama as short term absentees in the treatment room.

Saints boss Ronald Koeman last week all but ruled out any further additions in the transfer window, and the indications are that will still probably be the case with Alderweireld, Schneiderlin and Wanyama set to miss just one more game before making comebacks.

Saints will also be boosted by the return of Maya Yoshdia for the next match, against Swansea, while Sadio Mane’s availability in the coming weeks depends on Senegal’s progress in the Africa Cup of Nations.

Koeman said: “We have one week and we will think about it (strengthening the squad).

“We know our situation, we know about the players who are injured and when they come back but when you look to the bench there is Shane and the rest under-21s and that is difficult.”

He added: “I like to have a squad to go with what we are doing until now.

“We know maybe for one game maybe we can change and bring in young players but not until the end of the season.

“Normally the players will come back in for two or three weeks but not today.”

Though the loss of Long is undoubtedly a blow with senior and experienced players so thin on the ground, Koeman does still have a strong first team he can field against Swansea before getting a raft of players back.

Long though faces around a month recovering.

“I spoke to the doctor and he thought he will have fractured one or two ribs and that’s very painful,” reported Koeman.

“It’s a pity because we don’t have that number of players to go with all the injuries that we have.”

It was just rather typical of the bad luck Saints have had with injuries this season, where they have seemed to get them in batches.

“That’s part of football but lucky or not be lucky we know that,” reflected Koeman.

“We knew before the season if we get this kind of number of injured players then we will get problems, that’s normal.

“Still we are third in the league and I am not worried about that, I am worried about what we showed in defence in the first 45 minutes.”

With just a week until the close of the transfer window Koeman also played down fresh reports linking top sides with a move for injured striker Jay Rodriguez.

“That kind of rumours is all the season,” he said. “He’s a Southampton player, he has a contract and he’s not for sale.