As the squad returns to Staplewood after the International break the main concern is the fitness of Dusan Tadic and Morgan Schneiderlin who both returned back early with injuries.

Saints could be facing an injury crisis in the midfield for the trip to Aston Villa, luckily due to the fact that the game has been selected for Sky TV on Monday evening, Saints have an extra couple of days to get the walking wounded fit again, but the return of these two with injury problems means that there are four central midfielders on the injury list when you add the long term James Ward Prowse and Steven Davis who was unable to join the Northern Ireland squad.

How serious the knocks to both Tadic and Schneiderlin are is unclear and perhaps something that Saints don't want to reveal preferring to keep Villa guessing.

But if all four fail to make muster it will be a blow with Tadic and Schneiderlin being the heart of the midfield.

But Saints will still have plenty of options, they could push Florin Gardos or Toby Alderweireld as a holding midfield player alongside Wanyama and push Jack Cork as the forward man, if they opted for this that would allow Shane Long and Sadio Mane to play wide, or they could play Cork & Wanyama holding and drop Mane or Long as the forward player just behind Pelle and bring in Matt Targett in a more midfield role.

Then there is the option of Harrison Reed or even Mayuka.

It is testimony to not only the greater depth of Saints squad this season, but also the versatility of the players in it that even if all four were to be out then we can still put out a side that is capable of doing the job.

The indications on both Tadic and Schneiderlin is that these are minor knocks and not too serious and that as both France and Serbia only had friendly matches it was not neccessary to risk agravating injuries further, so hopefully at least one, preferably both will be fit, Steven Davis hamstring injury is far more of a doubt as those injuries can be hard to guage, two weeks treatment and rest could be enough time to recover although with a busy December coming up it is more likely that he may be given an extra week to make sure it is fully recovered.

Photo: Action Images

Butty101 added 11:09 - Nov 19 Due to Manes travel i would have expected him to be benched.
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IanRC added 12:01 - Nov 19 Do we know how far from a return JWP is ?
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SaintNick added 12:03 - Nov 19 the extra couple od days benefit us with regard manes return so he should be ok
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HoveSaint added 15:36 - Nov 19 A couple of points here in that I am sure Tintin has made it clear (as all managers would) that any issues with the players and they get pulled, Spider was pulled very early and both national management have stated "minor injuries". The depth that we have in the squad and options that we can adopt is as stated the real reason why we should not be too concerned even if they are all rested for the Villa match. The defence wont be affected (and who is going to score for villa anyway?) and the strike force is still as potent as before the international break. The poorest result we can expect is a draw, but im going for a 0-2 win, with Pelle getting at least 1. Love being a Saints fan COYS!!

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