Elite sportsmen have been exempt from travel bans and the other restrictions imposed on the other members of society, but this week Covid 19 looks set to scupper Jannik Vestergaard's chance to become first choice for his country.

Jannik Vestergaard is in the form of his life, certainly the best since he arrived at St Mary's in the summer of 2018, back then he joined a club that had lost it's way and was in turmoil with a manager who was at best indifferent and at worst well far worse.

Add to that issues in the central defensive department and the Dane could be excused taking time to settle, but even after the arrival of Ralph Hasenhuttl and the departure of rival for a place in the centre of defence Wesley Hoedt, Vestergaard struggled to establish himself.

Indeed up to the start of this season he had featured in barely half the Premier League games he could have played.

He has been linked with a move away from the club in the last two transfer windows and it looked like he was going to be another poor & expensive transfer buy by Saints.

But although he got his chance in the first team in the opening game of the season when he came on at half time for Jan Bednarek, he was dropped again for the Spurs game .

But with Jack Stephens carrying the can for that debacle, he came back for the trip to Burnley and played a stellar part in a 1-0 win when defeat would have seen us in the bottom three.

He like Saints has gone from strength to strength and he looks a totally different player than the one that pulled on a Saints shirt for the previous two years.

He is in the side on merit and has formed a good partnership with Jan Bednarek, it is still not perfect, but is the most solid one since Van Dijk was injured and Jose Fonte sulked off to West Ham.

He might have hoped that he could now force his way into the Denmark team, he has usually been in the squad, but too often he has not got a game, but he must have been hoping that this season would make Danish head coach Kasper Hjulmand sit up and notice.

But that has all been scuppered by Covid 19 and the recent changes to the UK travel rules than ban all non UK nationals from travelling to the UK from Denmark.

Whilst exceptions have been made to Covid 19 restrictions for so called Elite Sportsmen, it seems that this law is a little more rigid and the Premier League has told clubs not to release Denmark, Sweden and Iceland players for their country’s upcoming fixtures.

Media reports say that Vestergaard has complied with this ruling and is still in England, but is hoping that discussions underway might bring a relaxing in the ruling and although he is now likely to miss Denmark's game against Sweden on Wednesday, he is hopeful he may be able to join the squad after this game for the two all-important Nations League games against Iceland and Belgium.

Photo: Action Images

underweststand added 16:30 - Nov 9 Given the current situation this might be a blessing in disguise. Saints players (or most anyway) seem to have made it through the summer and this season with the minimum of Co-vid disruptions. Of course it's tough on Jannick this time around, but on current form -who would dare to leave him out of their side ? ..not Saints to start with. There will be players who will travel for internationals and we must hope that they all stay fit and healthy for the restart on 21st.

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