If Jannik Vestergaard is out for the nest five weeks as Ralph Hasenhuttl has suggested he could miss as many as 8 Premier League games in that time, Saints need to bring in a new face at the back in January.
A look at the league fixtures in the next month or so shows that starting with the game against West Ham and ending with the trip to Newcastle on February 6th, we have 8 Premier League fixtures in a little over 5 weeks and that doesn't include at least one, potentially two FA Cup games to squeeze in.
This means by the first week in February including the Boxing Day game we will have squeezed in a quarter of the season in a 6 week period.
For Saints there are going to be injury management issues in this period and already we are having a mini crisis.
But the biggest issue won't be getting and keeping Danny Ings fit, it will be replacing Jannik Vestergaard at the back, Jack Stephens came in against Fulham and did ok, but he was no where near the standards that Vestergaard has set of late, there is no doubting that Stephens can come in and do a job when needed, but his problem is that he has never found the consistency needed over a 38 game season, he is a good stand in player and every squad needs players like that, but as he approaches the 4th anniversary of his debut he has only averaged around 20 starts a season and there is a reason for that.
Stephens has a place in the Saints squad and he has already contributed this season, but I can't say that he is the man to hold the back four together over a prolonged period of games, before you start reminding me about the games in the re start, lets be blunt, they were good results, but we had a lot of luck, indeed we could have been 2-0 down in the opening game at Norwich in the first 15 mins.
At Fulham we gave them a couple of chances where they were unmarked and should have scored, we went back to old habits.
But if Stephens isn't the answer then is Mohammed Salisu, a man who has yet to play a minute of football even for the B side, he seems to be highly rated, but at Fulham Stephens was preferred because he is more of a ball player than Salisu as well as his experience.
This being the case will Salisu be the answer ? possibly not.
A third option would be to revert to a back three, Ralph Hasenhuttl has tried this before but with limited success, but he might be considering it now, both from his current needs in the back four, but injury issues elsewhere.
A reshuffle enabling him to utilise his fullbacks in a more attacking option along with a central trio of JWP, Romeu and Diallo with two front players might be an option given that with Nathan Redmond out injured, wide options are limited with Theo Walcott perhaps needing to be pushed up front.
But all of these are not tried and trusted options and that means that we still need to consider bringing someone else into the centre of defence., this doesn't have to be a permanent deal, but perhaps a loan deal for an experienced central defender out of favour at his current club.
With the possibility of at least half a dozen games in the starting line up and potentially more, it would surely be an attractive proposition to a fair few squad players in the Premier League at the moment.
Eric Garcia at Manchester City would fit the bill, but he looks likely to join Barcelona, Marcos Rojo at Manchester United could be another option and there are plenty of other players who could be looking to go out on loan this January.
A loan option therefore would be good for both Saints and the players themselves.
Signing a player like this nearing the end of their career would not be a backward step, it would be a positive one given it would be short term and would bring in much needed experience to the back line, the Saints way has always been about mixing youth with experience and we have missed a leader at the back since Jose Fonte decided his future lay elsewhere.