Ronald Koeman says he has no regrets about allowing Jack Cork to leave the club and has expressed his delight at the midfielder’s progress at Swansea.

Cork made the move to Wales in January after three-and-a-half years at St Mary’s, and has established himself as a regular in the Swansea side who face Saints this afternoon. There has even been talk of a potential England call-up in the near future.

Saints ultimately left the decision over whether the transfer would take place down to Cork, and Koeman doesn’t regret the way things went.

He said: “No, I think Jack is doing well. He looks that he is winning the competition with the rest of the midfield players in Swansea.

“We know his quality, he’s an experienced player, a very good professional, but the time he choose to leave the club he wasn’t first choice on the midfield.

“We have a lot of good midfield players, we spoke about it and finally he took the decision to leave the club.

“He’s doing well and that’s very positive for him.”

Koeman never doubted Cork’s ability to succeed in the game, but admitted a new challenge proved too tempting for the player in the end.

“He had potential. He was not a young player, he was an important person and player in the group,” insisted Koeman.

“But always there is a moment for that kind of players, if they accept the role at that moment or they are looking for a new challenge. He took his new challenge.”

While Cork is looking for an England call-up for the upcoming internationals in October, two of Saints’ injured players who are returning to full fitness – Jay Rodriguez and Ryan Bertrand – also have one eye on Roy Hodgson’s squad.

“That's not up to me,” said Koeman of a potential recall for Rodriguez. “To be a candidate you win with how you play for your club. That's the most important.

“Wednesday, in my opinion, when I was looking to Jay he was really fresh in the game and sometimes you see that he is a little bit more struggling, a little bit more tired.

"That's normal - we are talking about 14 months out of real competition. You don’t recover that in two weeks, you need time for that.

"But every week he is more close to being the Jay that he was."

With Luke Shaw and Leighton Baines out, the door is ajar for Bertrand, but first he needs to prove he is fit again.

"That's a difficult question,” admitted Koeman. “I think if Ryan plays enough minutes in the next two games, because after that is international duty.

"Then I hope he will be not involved in the two matches, maybe he needs to play one then. Okay, it’s too early to make conclusions about that."