Mauricio Pellegrino has confirmed that Virgil Van Dijk is in line for his first start in a Saints shirt in nearly 8 months as Manchester United visit St Mary's.
Mauricio Pellegrino will decide over the next two days whether Virgil Van Dijk is ready to start the match on Saturday afternoon against United, although his decision will be swayed by how sharp the player looks in training on Friday.
Speaking at the press conference on Thursday afternoon the manager said.
"We will decide tomorrow, but every single week Virgil is important because he is getting better.
"After a long period of time without playing a game now he is training well, and it’s good news for us because we need Virgil like every single player in our squad.
"Virgil is an important player for us.
"I think every single week he will improve, but at the same time he needs to play, he needs to train.
"The best training session for me is to play games. Now he is playing in the reserves and 15 minutes is something and he is training well.”
But Pellegrino knows that starting a game against players with fresh legs is a lot different to last weekend when Van Dijk came on in the last 13 minutes at Palace against an attack that was tiring.
Indeed the manager said that the player would continue on his route to fitness and may even play another U23 game to hone his fitness.