Jay Rodriguez’s World Cup dreams hang in the balance after he was carried off following an injury sustained at Manchester City.

Saints’ top scorer landed very heavily on his right knee trying to control a ball midway through the first half of his side’s game at the Etihad Stadium.

Rodriguez appeared to be in tears of pain as he received treatment on the pitch and the swelling in his knee was so severe that it was decided to get him back to Southampton rather than take him straight to hospital.

That also means there is highly unlikely to be a signficant update on his condition for a few days as scans cannot take place to ascertain the full extent of the problem until the swelling goes down.

However, his teammates clearly feared the worst as they were visibly upset by the plight of their stricken colleague.