James O’Connor's Walsall future in serious doubt

The 32-year-old centre-back has been a mainstay in the Saddlers side ever since joining the club from Derby in 2014.

O’Connor, who is currently sidelined with a hip injury, has amassed more than 100 appearances in his time at the Banks’s Stadium and was named vice-captain just 12 months ago.

But it now seems his Walsall career is over with the player left out of the club’s official team photo which was taken this morning.

“I’ve been open and honest with Jimmy and I’ve told him I don’t see him playing many minutes for me with the way I want to play this season.” Whitney said.

“A couple of weeks into pre-season, as a coaching staff, we felt we needed more of a physical presence at the back.

“Tactically, I wanted to try and get James Wilson and I mentioned to Jimmy he may not get many minutes because of that.

“Kory Roberts is coming through and we have got really high hopes for him. We want him to step forward.

“And I am still in talks with Matty Preston. Our decision was to go with James Wilson, Jon Guthrie, Kory Roberts and keep Matty Preston.

“We want Kory to realise his potential and with Matty we are at a stage where we feel we can make him technically better and make him a big player for this club in the future.”

Whitney insisted the decision over O’Connor has been made for football reasons with the manager saying there is no rift between the pair.

“Jimmy has currently got his injury so he is concerting on getting himself fit,” the boss added.

“It’s a hip injury. It’s nothing serious. It’s non-surgical and he has been working really hard to get back fit.

“I have got no problems with Jimmy. It happens in football. It happened to me when I was at Hull.

“I’m not closing the door on Jimmy but I don’t see him playing many minutes with the way I want to play.”