Phil Gould has called for fans to be “a little more patient” with players returning from injury amid suggestions Manly should swing the axe on Tom Trbojevic — and even argued the struggling superstar would play for another “six or seven years”.

Trbojevic has been plagued by injuries over the past few seasons and has openly admitted he has yet to display his full potential this season.

The 28-year-old has featured in 15 matches for Manly in 2025, scoring just four tries and also shifting from fullback to centre in some clashes.

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Trbojevic is reportedly on a deal worth around $1.1 million per season and is set to come off contract at the end of next season.

At one point last season after missing a series of matches, Trbjoveic offered to take a pay cut to assist with the club’s salary-cap concerns, but that was denied.

Still, the total cost for the club with each match he misses has many fans concerned.

One listener of Wide World of Sports’ Six Tackles with Gus asked when Manly should “rip the band-aid off” over Trbojevic, and said both Tom and Jake were no longer worth more than $300,000 per season.

“I would argue with that,” Gould replied when told the question.

“I think it is unfair on both of them to have someone comment like this. The ruthlessness of this, you can feel the frustration in this (message) that it is a fan.

“Manly aren’t winning, the boys probably aren’t playing at the best of their ability or they are not playing every week at the moment … and then you start relating the money towards performance. That is very, very unfair on the players.

“Roster management is hard, it is hard. You have to understand that father time waits for no one. Father time is undefeated.

“It is a difficult one. They are two great players and two great blokes. The whole Manly side is struggling at the moment. I don’t know where their roster or salary cap is at.

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“The Trbojevic boys are so passionate and have been great performers for the club.

“Manly wouldn’t be where they (have been) over the past few years without the Trbojevic brothers and that is just a fact.

“It will get to that point where if you leave it up to them to retire, when do they do it? But I think Tom still has plenty of football left in him.”

The 2021 Dally M Medallist has made it clear he wishes to stay on at Manly until he calls time on his career, having also been linked to make the move to the Super League.

Gould believes the main issue for Trbojevic is a lack of “hard training”.

“He has had some injury concerns over the past few years but Tom himself is very conscious that he hasn’t played a lot of football,” he said.

“I’m not a medic at all but I’ve been around them long enough to know, I don’t think Tom needs any sort of break, I think he needs more hard work.

“What we are learning more and more is that players who have been susceptible to injury, giving them less of (a training load) is sometimes detrimental to them. Not all of them but to some of them. The answer is sometimes more play and more training.

“Every time he comes back, he is underprepared for coming back. He is trying to get back in and play and feel valuable for (his team). But he is underprepared for the demands of the game, that’s how he looks physically to me.

“He can pass the fitness tests but the big fitness test comes on Sunday afternoon in the heat of battle. (The opposition) will (test you) even more if you still have lingering doubts. You can’t pace your way through the match these days.

“I’m sure he still has another six or seven years left in him.”

Gould went on to note that often it is not raised that team medics and trainers are not solely working with one athlete but rather a mixture of talent at all stages of life.

“People don’t appreciate how hard that is and how difficult the scheduling makes it,” he said.

“I think you are being far too harsh. I think fans need to be a little bit more patient.

“This is what people are posting on social media all day, every day. This is why we try to keep (players) off social media.”