Martin Caceres has been pictured training with Saints at their Staplewood training complex, but will he be fit enough to play a part at Wembley ?
Martin Caceres has passed his medical and has now been pictured by his agent on twitter kitted out in Saints training kit and joining his new team mates ahead of the game against Sunderland.
It is unlikely that the Uruguayan defender will play a part in that game though as he is still awaiting the red tape surrounding his work permit to be sorted out.
Although the appeals process is relatively quick it will still mean that he probably won't be signed in time for the trip to Sunderland, however it could be that he is thrown in at the deep end and could make his Saints debut at Wembley against Manchester United.
Ryan Bertrand will perhaps be able to offer him some advice on this as although he had already made a few appearances for Chelsea in the Premier League, when he started the 2012 Champions League final, he had never before played in that competition when he helped his then club to a win over Bayern Munich in his Champions League debut.
But there are two questions than will need answering about whether Caceres will feature at Wembley.
The first is fitness, he hasn't played for nearly a year due to an achilles tendon rupture, but you would hope that in that time he has been keeping himself relatively fit and that now he is back training with a club that he could be got to somewhere near match fitness quickly.
By the time that Wembley arrives Saints will have had just under three weeks to assess the situation, that will be good enough to get him to a level where he can play matches, but the real question is match sharpness.
My view is that we can get him to a satisfactory fitness level and if we can slot him into a U23 game or two in the meantime it should sharpen up his levels up enough to put him in consideration for a place in the starting line up.
That in itself asks a question within a question and that is if he is fit should he play ahead of Jack Stephens who has had to fit into the squad with little experience.
To drop Stephens would be harsh after his heroics at Anfield in the second leg, but the stark truth is that in the games since the pairing of Yoshida and Stephens is just not good enough for the level that we require.
I don't like to run down either player, both are good servants to the club and will give the proverbial 110% and run through brick walls, but the truth is neither is good enough at this level, yes you can perhaps get away with playing either alongside a quality experienced defender like Virgil Van Dijk for short bursts, but long term they are not conistent enough and together as a pair as recent results have shown it does not work.
So I would be looking at getting Caceres into the starting line up at Wembley, he will have the experience and quality to slot into te defence without having played much lately, there is no substitute for class and we desperately need that in the centre of defence at the moment.
Harsh on Yoshida and Stephens yes, but we have to forget sentiment and go with the best side for winning the game.
If Caceres is not fit to play then I seriously worry about our ability to defend in the final, yes for long periods against both Swansea and West Ham we were solid, but twice in the game in Wales and three times against the Hammers a lack of concentration and discipline at the back cost us goals, we cannot let that happen.
Having said that both proved at Liverpool, sometimes a combination of effort, luck and team spirit can get you through a tough game and if both have to play then perhaps they have it in them to play the game of their lives, in many respects the difference between say Yoshida and a top central defender is consistency, the likes of Van Dijk do it week in week out and keep their concentration levels, Yoshida can be brilliant but then let his standards drop in a game that can cost us goals.
I remember the last time we played in a final against Manchester United, back then our central defenders were seen as not good enough to subdue a free scoring United attack, but they dug in had the game of their lives and we won the trophy, can history repeat itself ?