Brooks was intro­duced with six reg­u­lar min­utes left on the clock but was with­drawn in the sec­ond half of extra time, with Ipswich Town’s Nathan Broad­head com­ing on in his place.

Speak­ing after the game, Page admit­ted it was a risk bring­ing the Southamp­ton for­ward on, but one worth tak­ing.

He said: “Brooksy has been ill since Thurs­day. He has not trained a minute on the grass. He was a gam­ble.

“Some­one of Brooksy’s qual­i­ty, you want to get them on the pitch. We realised straight away that he did­n’t have a run in him.

READ MORE: Bednarek’s Poland beat Brooks’ Wales on penal­ties to secure spot at Euro 2024

“He admit­ted that. It was a tough one. We had to bring Broady on because we just want­ed to get over the line and make sure that we had legs to do that.”

Brooks scored the open­ing goal for Cym­ru in their 4–1 play­off semi-final win over Fin­land last week before set­ting up Bren­nan John­son.

The 26 year old has become a key play­er for Southamp­ton since join­ing on loan from Pre­mier League out­fit AFC Bournemouth in Jan­u­ary.

Brooks had pro­vid­ed 10 goal con­tri­bu­tions in his pre­vi­ous 10 games ahead of his brief cameo at the Cardiff City Sta­di­um.

Rus­sell Mar­tin is expect­ed to give a fur­ther update on Brooks’ fit­ness ahead of fac­ing Mid­dles­brough on Good Fri­day.