Saints central defensive worries intensified after it was revealed that Florin Gardos has suffered a serious knee injury.
Ronald Koeman slipped in to his pre match interview before the game with Feyenoord that Florin Gardos had knee surgery earlier in the week however he did not elaborate.
Now however it has been revealed that the defender has suffered a serious knee injury and is likely to miss most if not all of the coming season.
"Very sad news,” reflected Koeman.
"He was going in his second season in Southampton and young and that type of injury and you lose six or seven months and everybody is disappointed.”
It is a blow to Saints although not as major as it would first sound, Saints have been chasing a new central defender after losing Toby Alderweireld and assuming they land one it would have seen Gardos still down in the pecking order.
However it had been hoped that the defender after a year at the club raising his fitness level's would have stepped up a knotch this term and perhaps pushed for a first team spot after falling behind Yoshida in the final third of the season.
Gardos had a mixed debut season for Saints, however in the games he played Saints usually did well and gained points in more than they dropped when Gardos was called upon, notably when they won at Old Trafford when the Romania was brought on as a sub for the injured Alderweireld after only 15 minutes or so.
His season effectively ended at West Bromwich Albion in February when he was substituted after only 25 minutes, in fairness to him though it was a rare tactical error by Ronald Koeman and he was taken off when the Dutch manager shuffled his formation rather than any other reason, however after that Yoshida took his chance and jumped above him in the pecking order.
Prior to that game though it has looked like he may have been stepping up to the playe, apart from the aforementioned win at United, prior to the West Brom game he had played most of the previous 7 Premier league games, a period in which Saints had won 5 and drawn 2, conceding only 3 goals in the process, but after West Brom it went wrong for both Gardos and Saints.
Now Saints will intensify their search for another central defender and it could be that they will actually look at making two signings rather than one, at the moment they have Fonte and Yoshida as the de facto first choices backed up by Martina who can play in the position and then youngsters jack Stephens and Jordan Turnbull, in terms of numbers Saints are ok in the position, but the reality is that a quality addition is needed.