Eagle eyed Southampton fans will have been heartened after pictures emerged from Staplewood of a return to training from one of our key players this season.
Kyle Walker Peters returned to full training a couple of weeks ago and looks set to return to the first team squad for the visit of Middlesbrough on Good Friday, but recent pictures released by Southampton FC show that in recent days he has been joined by Ryan Fraser.
Independent website Southamptonfcnews have reported that Saints X account has posted pics that show the loanee from Newcastle back in training.
Fraser has been out since the 19th minute of the game against Millwall, in that short period of time he was kicked off the park, as Millwall clearly targeted him as the danger man who needed to be subdued.
That was back on the 24th February some 5 weeks ago, but due to the International break and the postponement of our trip to Leicester, he has missed just two League games so far and both of those were won, so little damage done in that respect.
Whether he is ready for a return against Middlesbrough is not yet clear and with David Brookes in good form the urgency to bring him back is not so great as it might have been, so I would suspect that although he could feature on the bench on Friday, he might well be just held back unless we are desperate in the final stages of the game.
I would think it would be more likely that he would feature on the Monday against Ipswich Town, although again he might well start on the bench rather than be in the starting line up.
Southampton face a tough period playing 10 games in a 5 week period, to have everyone fit and raring to go is going to be crucial as we go into the money part of the season.