Nathan Peats is no chance of moving to South Sydney to help ease Parramatta’s salary cap woes, after Rabbitohs coach Michael Maguire on Wednesday ruled out a return of the durable rake to Redfern.

Gold Coast appears Peats’ only option as the Eels attempt to offload him in time to slip under the salary cap before Friday’s round 10 NRL clash with Souths.

Peats, who played under Maguire at Souths for two seasons before moving to Parramatta in 2014, had been linked to a return to the cardinal and myrtle. But Maguire quashed that speculation.

“We have two good dummy halves in Cam McInnes and Damien Cook, I am happy with those boys,” Maguire said.

“Peatsy is a good kid, I obviously have had a bit of time with him over the last few years when he was here.

“It is tough to see him go through what he is going through but I’m sure he will get picked up and knowing Peatsy I am sure he will come out of it.”

Peats’ father Geordi, who played for Canterbury and South Sydney, earlier slammed the conduct of Eels officials Steve Sharp, Tom Issa, Peter Serrao, John Boulous and Daniel Anderson. The quintet have been provisionally suspended by the NRL over the Eels alleged salary cap rorts.

“You have five f***wits on the board who can’t add up and it bites a player on the arse when it’s not his fault,” Geordi Peats told Fairfax Media.

“They reckon they’ve got nothing to answer for, they are pathetic.”

Peats said the players were the ones who ultimately suffered for the board’s mistakes, adding his son was a “pawn in the big game”.

“(Nathan) is shattered, he’s filthy. He’s not happy, he can’t believe it,” Peats said.

“They go and buy Kieran Foran and built well this year but obviously they didn’t have the money to do it.

“They told him yesterday they can’t give him a contract for next year because they stuffed up (2017) as well. They don’t know what they’re doing.