Southampton have announced that they will travel up to the Midlands on Friday to face Aston Villa, with Tonda Eckert saying he wants more physically from his players before they return from the International break to face Portsmouth.

However before you start heading to the West Midland's on Friday you need to realise that this will be a behind closed doors friendly.

Speaking to The Daily Echo Tonda Eckert had this to say as to why he was taking his team up to face Aston Villa a game where he will be missing Daniel Peretz, Cyle Larin, Finn Azaz, Ryan Manning, Kuryu Matsuki, Divin Mubama and Romeo Akachukwu, all of whom are away on International duty.

Villa too will be missing a fair chunk of their squad, making this more of a game with both sides being of a hybrid nature

"It was a decision to take whether we had some days off straight away after the Wrexham game and then come back in," Eckert told the Daily Echo.

"I still think, and I think the games have shown, that we have levels to go to physically, so we have made the decision to continue training this week.

"We're going to have a big week ahead of us after Wrexham and then finish off with a game. I think it's good to have a couple of days off to recover.

"We're going to round up with a friendly on Friday and train on Saturday. Then during the second week we're going to have a couple of days off.

"It's good to have a couple of days off to recover, then we just need to make sure that we have the best run-up possible to play Sunday against Pompey.

"While you enjoy the amount of games we have had, and playing every three days, your body still tells you at one point that it's quite a lot for the legs.

"You need to respect that. Early on in the season, you're still laying foundations; you're not where you are maybe November time or March time.

"You're still building up and these games help you to get closer to 100 per cent, we are not there yet. I think there's a lot more to come from us.

"There are a lot more layers we need to put on to our game with the way that we defend and attack, but also physically, I think there's a lot more to come."

Via Reuters