Ralph Hasenhuttl has been talking about why Stuart Armstrong has been missing this season and has put a dampener on the conspiracy theories that have been doing the rounds over the past weeks.
Stuart Armstrong was one of the best and most consistent performers last season playing 32 games plus another as sub and scoring 4 goals, so his absence in the pre season friendlies and indeed going into the league season prompted a few rumours and conspiracy theories doing the rounds.
These were fired up when the Scot was on the bench for the opening game of the season suggesting he was fit and then again the following week when he was nowhere to be seen and subsequently he has not featured in any of the squads since.
But the transfer window has shut and he has gone nowhere and now Ralph Hasenhuttl has spoken out on why Stuart Armstrong has not been playing.
Speaking ahead of the trip to Manchester City the Austrian had this to say.
"They are muscle problems, less intense ones," explained Hasenhuttl, when asked by reporters at the pre match press conference to shed more light on the absences of both Stuart Armstrong and Theo Walcott.
"I think that it will not take that long until they are back. They are not big muscle problems, just smaller ones. "
"At the moment, we have the alternatives , so we will not take a risk and we will not push them too hard to come back."
"We give them all the time they need to come back, because we have enough alternatives, especially for these positions."
Specifically addressing Armstrong's injury he had this to say.
"With Stu, with the calf, there is a bit of blood still in there. It will take a few more days to clear and maybe one or two weeks to come back, we'll give him the time he needs."
That is good news for Saints fans, not just with regard to the news on Armstrong, but the fact that this season we can have injuries to two or three players and deal with it from within the squad.
We have gone from the second half of last season where at times we were having to scrape up a side with 7 or 8 youngsters bolstering the squad to having options in all departments and that has to be a good thing.