Saints still have 10 injury issues as they travel to Leicester City in the Premier League on Saturday, including the doubts over Danny Ings, but there is some good news, so lets not write off the game just yet.

If Saints thought they had an injury list when they took on and beat Premier League Champions Liverpool at the start of last week, then that now looks like luxury as Ralph Hasenhuttl revealed those in this weeks treatment room.

The squad will potentially be without Nathan Redmond, Michael Obafemi, Mohammed Salisu, Jannik Vestergaard, Nathan Tella & Moussa Djenepo with Danny Ings extremely doubtful after Covid and question marks over the full fitness of Che Adams, Oriol Romeu & Alex McCarthy with these three returning after injury and illness.

Hasenhuttl revealed: "We had, after the last game against Liverpool, one positive test. Danny Ings is out. He's been out for ten days now in self-isolation.

"This means that, maybe in this game, he is also contagious. We have had no further positive tests so that means that our protocol is working. When we stick to them we can work together and celebrate together and this is enough.

"We have a few other injuries. Michael Obafemi has had surgery on his quad and he will be out for longer.

"Nathan Tella has a problem with this muscle, we have a few of those at the moment. It gives me a real headache.

"They are happening because of pre-season and we're not allowed to use all the recovery facilities at Staplewood. This is costing us.

"Also Redmond, Jannik, Moussa - they're still out. Not available."

But there is good news for Southampton who has this week welcomed Che Adams, Oriol Romeu and Alex McCarthy back to training with all expected to be available for Saturday.

"Yes, this is good. They are back," he added.

So Saints could potentially be without 10 players from the squad for the trip to the King Power, so lets take a look at the chances of each player.

Three of those ten have a chance of playing, Che Adams, Oriol Romeu & Alex McCarthy are returning from injury and hopefully will be able to play some part, Adams should be fit after his concussion, Romeu will obviously be dependent on how well his injury has recovered and Alex McCarthy may have some after effects of Covid, but Ralph seems upbeat about their chances of being involved.

But another Nathan Redmond & Jannik Vestergaard are longer term and still injured and they are joined by Moussa Djenepo and Michael Obafemi on the long term list.

This leaves us with 3 maybe's, Nathan Tella, Mohamed Salisu & maybe Danny Ings.

Of those Tella has a problem but might be fit enough to make the bench, Salisu again might be fit for the bench but has yet to make an appearance so not an issue anyway and that just leaves Danny Ings.

Ings tested positive after the Liverpool game, but can return to training on Friday after a 10 day isolation, Ralph will have to balance up the risks of playing him after this lay off not just due to a lack of fitness but if Covid 19 has any after affects on him, I would not be surprised to see the King Of The Scummers on the bench.

So it is still a stretched squad for the trip to the East Midlands, but we can still put out a decent starting XI, perhaps with the exception of Ings stronger and that is good news, the return of the the likes of Romeu and Adams will make up for some of those missing and the bench may well be again stronger than the Liverpool win.

Hopefully as that victory showed in adversity we found a team spirit that saw us through, we will need that again against the Foxes.

Photo: Action Images

underweststand added 09:48 - Jan 15 Crisis! Crisis! with predictions of impending disaster after Danny Ings positive covid test. well ...such things can happen, but so far this season we've lost Redmomd, Vestergaard and now Djenepo to injury - as well as Alex McCarthy's short covid "event", and we still took 3 points off Liverpool and kept a clean sheet into the bargain, as well as picking up valuable points during Danny's previous absences. The " Crisis " headline may send some into " lemming-mode " and expect mass cases of suicidal leaps off the Town Quay and deep depression amongst the Saints faithful. NOT SO ...Even without those absences (above), we still have the possibility to field a competitive side and Brendan Rodgers may have a headache trying to anticipate who Ralph may choose to play and how he will organise his options, now that the rather "predictable " plan to combat Danny Ings has gone out of the window. Somehow, the memory of that rainy night at SMS strikes fear into some hearts with the mere mention of the name LEICESTER, but let's not forget that last season we took 3 points off them in the return fixture, and results from previous matches there were often only decided by the odd goal. Hope Danny is back soon, but I am looking forward to Ralph's " alternative line-up" and the chance to pick up more points.

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IanRC added 10:02 - Jan 15 Had that cheat Periera not made the most of it and the VAR adjudicator been so biased, Bertrand would not have been sent off and the result might have been very different. Funny how with some teams the measure is whether the defender kicked the ball first, which Bertrand clearly did, whereas with others different rules apply. COYR not the least to put Rodgers in his place.

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IanRC added 10:04 - Jan 15 Forgot to say just hope we are playing Shrewsbury and not Leeds in the middle of next week.
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