SAINTS boss Russell Martin says Che Adams will be involved on the weekend against Sunderland if he remains at the club beyond Friday's transfer deadline.

The Scottish international was left out of Southampton's matchday squad for their 2-1 win over QPR last Saturday.

Martin made that decision amid a lot of speculation surrounding Adams' future.

The Daily Echo have reported that the 27 year old has been offered a new contract, which he is yet to sign.

The former Sheffield United forward has been the subject of interest from Everton in recent weeks, but the Toffees have now signed Portuguese striker Beto from Udinese, leaving Adams' future unknown.

Speaking ahead of Saints' lunchtime kick-off against Sunderland at the Stadium of Light this Saturday, Martin noted that there has been no further developments towards Adams' departure.

He said: “He’s trained really well. He trained separately from us for one day, which everyone knew about, unfortunately.

“He’s trained brilliantly this week and he’s a fantastic character as I’ve said to you so many times already.

“There are three scenarios really. One is that we keep Che, and everyone is happy.

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"Another is that we lose Che, and we go and replace him.

"The other one is that we keep Che, and we may bring someone else in as well.

“Whatever happens we will be ok really. I can’t be any more open or transparent with that.

“I don’t think anything has advanced since we last spoke. The club that came in for him has gone away, maybe some other clubs will come in for him at another point.

“Until then he has trained really well," the 37 year old continued. 

"It’s been nice having him. He’s really focused, if he is here then he will 100 per cent be involved on the weekend.

“If we lose Che we can’t not replace him – that would be madness.

“It has to be one of the three scenarios. If it’s not and a fourth scenario pops up from somewhere then we can talk about that at some point.

“I can’t see any other way that it plays out, to be honest apart from one of those three."