Former Hibernian striker Adam Le Fondre has opened up about the club hierarchy's decision to alter his contract - and why he felt he had to agree, just in order to play every week. 

The experienced forward joined the Scottish Premiership side in the summer of 2023, signing a one-year deal with the option of a second, and performed well in the first few weeks before a complex knee injury kept him sidelined for three months.

He told the 'I Had Trials Once...' podcast that, as he closed in on a return to action in early 2024, head coach Nick Montgomery had pulled him aside and dropped the bombshell. 

“Hibs is a massive club. I didn’t realise how big they were until I went there and saw the training ground, and it was a great set of lads - being an older player, what you look for is a good changing room. I’d done all the fighting and clique-y football when I was younger, so I was just happy to be in a good dressing room.

“I just picked up an injury at the wrong time, and it’s probably why I’m not still there. I had a two-year deal, got a PCL (posterior cruciate ligament) injury that was misdiagnosed, where they thought it was my hamstring again, and I ended up playing in a game and that made everything ten times worse. 

“I was out for three months with that but got back in January ahead of schedule. The gaffer pulled me in before a game away to Kilmarnock at the end of the month and I was dead upbeat, thinking I was going to be on the bench. He said, ‘I’ve been told I can’t play you any more, unless you take the second year out of your contract'.

“I’m thinking, ‘What?!’ I had 16 appearances by this point, I’d played near enough every game before the injury and I was decent; not amazing, but I’d say I'd outperformed what they were expecting from me. 

“I asked him, ‘Have I been s***?’ and he said, ‘No! You’ve been really good and I’ve needed you when you were out’. But he said the owners and the CEO didn’t want me to play again unless I took the second year out of my contract. I had a great relationship with the gaffer but I was thinking, ‘F****** hell’."

Read more: 

Montgomery told Le Fondre that the club had spoken to Stockport County, where he started his career, and Salford City about taking him on loan. 

“He said, ‘We’ve tried Stockport for you, and Salford,’ and my head was just spinning. I thought I was on the bench for Kilmarnock and there I was getting shipped out! I hadn’t even kicked a ball properly, I wasn’t fit," Le Fondre continued.

“The gaffer said he wanted me to stay. So I asked him, if I took the second year out, would he play me? I didn’t want him to mug me off. And he said if I did, then I’d play every game.

“I went home to think it all through, and that went on for a week or two. I was still trying to come back fully fit and I told the gaffer I wasn’t going on loan anywhere because I’d be released at the end of the season because I wasn’t fit.

“No team was going to use me, so what’s the point in going anywhere? I felt I’d rather get fit at Hibs and play until the end of the season, because the gaffer said he was going to play me. I managed to get fit and to be fair he did play me, and I ended up making nearly 30 appearances in all comps and did reasonably well."

But Le Fondre, who hinted at a difference in opinions in a social media post he made at the end of last season, claimed neither the club's chief executive Ben Kensell, nor the Gordon family as owners, had spoken to him about the contract U-turn.

“I was hoping that the people who wanted rid of me would have spoken to me. I understood it from a football perspective, and completely agreed with it, because why would you want a 37 or 38-year-old on again next year if you’re going for this model of maturing assets, especially when I’d had a knee injury - but I felt I deserved a little bit of respect.

“The CEO and the owner, who wanted rid of me, didn’t speak to me. I’d have been fine with that, I could see their point - I probably would have done it myself if I’d been a recruitment guy. Even the gaffer was saying, ‘I can’t believe not one of them has spoken to you'.

"So I had to sign [the second year] out of my contract in January or February and then just play until the end of the season. And that leaves me where I am now, as a free agent. I’ve been speaking to a few clubs, there are a few in League One that are local to me. The interest is more to what I can add as a leader and a mentor. I can still play well on the pitch but I’m looking long-term as well, when I come out of the game."

Le Fondre is interested in the recruitment side of the game and has designs on eventually taking up a head of recruitment role. In the meantime he is keeping his options open, having been training with FC United of Manchester and featuring for the Northern Premier League Premier Division side in a recent friendly against Fulwood Amateurs.