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Tim Leiweke: 'I personally don't think Defoe will come back'

Tom Szczerbowski-USA TODAY Sports

Toronto FC is on the verge of losing its biggest scoring threat. On Friday, outgoing president and CEO of Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment Tim Leiweke confessed to students at a Toronto university that he isn't expecting Jermain Defoe to return to the MLS club.

Talks of his exit from Toronto didn't occur until manager Ryan Nelsen - Defoe's former teammate with Tottenham Hotspur in London - was fired in August, and it became clear Defoe was unsettled at the club.

Defoe came close to a move back to the English Premier League when Queens Park Rangers showed an interest in the 31-year-old striker before the summer transfer window closed, but the sides failed to come to an agreement.

While Defoe is set to return from a groin injury before Toronto FC's season concludes, it could be a hostile relationship between the striker and the team's supporters if Leiweke's comments are accurate.

"I personally don't think Defoe will come back," Leiweke told a group of students at Ryerson University's Ted Rogers School of Management, per ESPN. "I think if he doesn't want to be here, you get rid of him.

"My attitude [is] if you want to be here and you want to buy into what we're doing, let's go. Roll up your sleeves and we'll fight together, and I will be there with you every day.

"If you don't want to be here, get the hell out of our way."

The lack of commitment, however, doesn't apply strictly to Defoe as Leiweke could only name two members of the club whose devotion to the team remains unquestioned.

"The only two guys in our locker-room that are looking around and going 'We ain't going down unless we go down fighting' are Michael Bradley and Greg Vanney," Leiweke conceded. "We have work to do there. We're not done by any means.

"I pray that we make it to the playoffs this year because you all deserve it, but I think we still have some hard decisions and hard work to do."

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