Jan Bednarek is the only major doubt for this evening's trip to Selhurst Park to play Crystal Palace but who will replace him.
Jan Bednarek has played every minute of Saints 23 games so far this season, but is set to miss this evening's game at Crystal Palace, that is a blow in itself, but who will Ralph Hasenhuttl select to replace him if he doesn't pass muster.
Jan Bednarek has been the only constant in the Saints defence this season and is the only defender who has come through the trying times of the first third of the season with his reputation relatively intact, so it is a major blow to lose him for a vital game that could see us pull well clear of relegation should we win or be drawn a little too close to comfort should we lose.
Ralph Hasenhuttl has plenty of options, but few of them would get in any other Premier League teams.
Yoshida would be the obvious replacement, but he more than anyone has paid the price for that debacle against Leicester City back in October, in the three months since despite being almost ever present on the bench, he has played just 5 minutes of Premier League football, that a brief cameo appearance against Norwich City at the start of December some 7 weeks ago.
Indeed he was not even on the bench against Wolves on Saturday although Vestergaard was, his time at St Mary's looks almost up and it was unclear on Saturday whether it was injury or otherwise that saw him left out.
Jannik Vestergaard would be the next option he too has paid the price for the Leicester game, but he has played a little more than Yoshida since in the Premier League suggesting that Hasenhuttl prefers him to Yoshida these days, but his two PL 90 minutes in the last three months were 2 1/2 months ago and like Yoshida his only game since then was the cup tie against Huddersfield and neither player gave any suggestion in that game that they were up to the task in the Premier League.
Perhaps Ralph will look outside the box to replace Bednarek, he still has Kevin Danso, but he appears unwilling to use him in any capacity, despite the problems we have in the back line, Danso has few Premier League minutes in total, his last being at Manchester City at the start of November, but he looked OK against Huddersfield and Ralph likes a surprise or two so could he find himself thrown in to the fray this evening.
The Austrian could also look to non specialist players like Oriol Romeu or even Ryan Bertrand to slot in.
Either way Bednarek's potential loss is a problem and illustrates our need to get in a central defender in this transfer window.