Ralph Hasenhuttl has been giving updates on his injury list as he prepares to take his squad to Villa Park on Friday evening, find out who is in and out here.

Ralph Hasenhuttl has updated Saints supporters with his injury issues ahead of the trip to Villa and it is pleasing to hear that it is only the two long term casualties who are not in the squad for the game against Aston Villa, well he would say that wouldn't he rather than give the game away.

“So far we had everybody in the training apart from Livramento and Roméo, they are still out. The rest are training with the team.

“I think we had a good week with using the time after the last game. It was a little bit strange because we prepared for an opponent, then we prepared for the next opponent without seeing if it worked or not.

“We can use a few things, in set-pieces and in open game, for this game. This was the challenge in the last days, and we had good sessions with a team that is really working hard, and hopefully we are prepared for tomorrow.”

So perhaps the only real news we can take as read are his updates on Romeo Lavia & Tino Livramento, & these appear to be positive.

Lavia will miss the game but is likely to return after the international break, although the game against Everton on 1st October may be a little soon for him, but Ralph is hopefull that the injury will all be part of a learning curve for the 18 year old.

“It’s tough for him, you can see it’s not easy, because it feels like a full break after a very, very good start,” he said.

“This setback is always a chance — especially for players who are coming in here — to scan your body, scan your deficits you have, and work on this in this time you are out now. This is always the chance.

“I often speak it, a lot of players using this time for coming back even stronger, physically especially.

“He has shown he can play good football, I think he has shown this in the five games he was playing, but now he has to adapt his body to get better prepared for this tough league. This is a good chance for him and I’m sure he will grab it.”

Tino Livramento is going to be a little longer than Lavia in returning to first team action, the earliest we can probably expect is going to be when football returns after the World Cup after Xmas and more likely it could be the New Year before he is risked.

But as reported on this site earlier in the week, Livramento is has started running and is back to training on grass, albeit in an individual programme rather than as part of the squad.

“It looks good, without being too euphoric I think we are on a good time schedule with him and a return to the team, so everything looks quite good at the moment.”

So good news for Saints supporters on the longer term front and hopefully Hasenhuttl will have a full squad to pick from at Villa Park aside from these two.

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