Saints will take on Leicester City at St Mary's on Wednesday looking to get back to winning ways after two straight defeats, but who will Ralph Hasenhuttl have back in his squad for a fixture that has not seen a win for the home side in the last four attempts.
Ralph Hasenhuttl likes to make the opposition think in his press conferences, so when he gives an injury update you are never quite sure how accurate his comments are, last week he reported a full squad for the trip to Anfield yet both Moi Elyounoussi and Stuart Armstrong missed the game, the former due to his wife about to give birth and the latter with the calf injury that has now kept him out of action for the best part of 4 months, add to that Ibrahima Diallo who had a knock on the ankle which left him on the bench and it was a different picture than the one given ahead of the game.
So when Ralph reports that for the visit of Leicester City he has a full squad I will take it with a pinch of salt.
Asked for his team news ahead of Wednesday’s home clash with Leicester City, the Austrian boss said:
"At the moment, as of today(Monday) I had 21 players on the pitch working with us.
"It was only Stuey who was not part of the squad. Jack Stephens is back and all the other players.
"Thierry Small played with the under-23s, so he was not with us but the rest were with us.”
Armstrong has been a big miss for Saints this season and has never quite been replaced in his wide midfield spot and a lack of goals so far this season is evidence of that, with Adam Armstrong on the small side for a forward, he would have benefitted from his namesakes surging runs and cutting inside and slotting the ball through rather than heading down the wing to cross a ball.
When Stuart returns to full fitness I would expect Adam to be a big beneficiary.
In the meantime we almost have a full squad for Wednesday night and it is important that the manager gets the team selection right, something he had admitted he did not do at Liverpool, in a fixture that has not been kind to Saints over the past four seasons.