Austin Out For Two Months

Saints injury woes just got worse with the news that top scorer Charlie Austin will be out for two months with the hamstring injury picked up against Huddersfield.

Saints now desperately need a striker in the January transfer window after it was revealed that Charlie Austin is likely to be out till at least the end of February with the hamstring injury picked up just before Xmas against Huddersfield.

Mauricio Pellegrino said.

"Charlie I think he will be out more than normal, exactly now today or this evening he will have another test to analyse a little bit better his injury, the grade of his injury."

"We will see but I expect Charlie will be out for a couple of months minimum."

Saints striking options are now stretched to the limit, Manolo Gabbiadini does not suit the way that Pellegrino puts out his teams, he cannot play as a lone striker in Pellegrino's style because he does not have the physical presence of Austin, he thrives on through balls and Saints have few players that can put in this type of pass for him.

The only option would be to perhaps play Sofiane Boufal alongside him or Shane Long, who could get the ball hold it and then play it in, but that means a major change in tactics for Pellegrino, however if he wants to keep his job he may have no choice.

Long is of course another option, but he looked demotivated up at Spurs and seems to be hacked off with the manager ignoring him recently.

Other than that we need to be looking to buy a striker in the transfer window and all indications were that we would be looking to do that as well as offload at least one.

Now it looks like selling isn't n option all will have to stay, but we need another striker in and fast.

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