EDDIE Howe says Burnley must face up to the prospect that Jay Rodriguez may have played his last game for the club.

The Clarets boss admits it is too early to say whether the 21-goal top scorer will feature again this season, after being ruled out of three of their last four games with a groin problem.

Rodriguez will not feature against Birmingham City tonight (kick-off 7.45pm) and is unlikely to be involved for the Easter fixtures against Brighton, at home on Good Friday, and away to Doncaster Rovers on Monday.

After Howe admitted it could be at least two weeks until the 22-year-old can be considered for selection.

But if Rodriguez isn’t able to make a comeback before the season closes with the visit of Bristol City on April 28, Howe fears that the defeat at Ipswich Town two weeks ago tonight could be his last for his hometown team, with interest in the England Under 21 cap set to hot up in the summer.

“I would think any Premier League team who has seen him and done their homework will see what a season he’s had, and look at his age and his goalscoring record and all the other attributes that he’s got – I’m sure there’ll be clubs looking at him and I’m sure there have been clubs looking at him this season,”

“We’ll wait and see on that one.

“If we can keep hold of him we’d love to.”

Of the prospect of Rodriguez playing any part in the remaining seven games, Howe added: “It potentially could be (the end of) his season. We’d like to think we could get him back for maybe the last couple of games, but we won’t take any risks with him. If he doesn’t make it he doesn’t make it.

“It’s nothing serious with Jay Rod. He’s played a lot of games and it’s probably just taken its toll a little bit.

“What we wouldn’t want to do is rush him back for the sake of one game.”

Burnley will also be without Martin Paterson tonight, after the striker limped out of Saturday’s 5-1 win at Portsmouth with a hamstring problem, similar to the one which sidelined him for a month soon after recovering from a long-term thigh problem.

“He’s got a slight problem with his hamstring. We still don’t know how serious it is,” said Howe. “We’ll get him scanned and find out the extent of the damage, but we don’t think it’s a serious one. Hopefully it will just be a week or a couple of weeks.”

But after seeing Danny Ings and hat-trick hero Charlie Austin pair up so effectively in the second half against Pompey, Howe is confident in his available front men.

“We’ve said all season we feel we’ve got some very good centre forwards at the club – the best young strikers in the division. I don’t think there’s a doubt about that when you put their ages together. Pato’s the most experienced of the lot and he’s 24,” said the Burnley boss.

“We’re very fortunate in respect of their ages, and the future does look quite bright, even if we lose one of them.”