Saints will give game time to both Cedric Soares and Maya Yoshida after their return to the squad following their exploits in Russia in the World Cup.

With the Premier League season approaching fast Mark Hughes is likely to give game time to both Cedric Soares and Maya Yoshida when Celta Vigo visit St Mary's this evening, with the opening Premier League game against Burnley now only 11 days away if either are to play a part in that game then they have to get some minutes on the pitch under their belt.

Cedric's last game for Portugal was on 25th June when he played in the final group game against Iran although his participation in the tournament didn't end till the 30th of that month when he was an unused substitute in Portugal's 2-1 defeat to Uruguay.

Yoshida was in action a little later with his last game in Russia being Japan's 3-2 defeat to Belgium on July 2nd.

Since then both have enjoyed their first break in nearly a year from the rigours of training and then competitive games and although they will maintain a level of fitness from a month ago, there is a difficult balance to be achieved to ensure that they have had some rest, some fitness work and also match action without over doing it.

But if they are to play against Burnley they they both need to get significant time on the pitch against both Celta Vigo and Borrussia Monchengladbach, however with these two games being in the space of three days, Mark Hughes will be wary of overworking them so soon after their return.

Perhaps the main priority though will be Cedric, if Hughes wants to play 4-4-2 against Burnley then he has no natural right back to hand apart from the untried Yan Valery and would then be likely to use Wesley Hoedt and Jannik Vestergaard as his two central defenders.

If he went for three central defenders then he could add Jan Bednarek to those two mentioned to form the back line trio or even Jack Stephens.

Either way Yoshida probably starts the season as 4th choice centre back and is not essential to the squad assuming everyone is fit, indeed it would be likely that he would not have even been on the bench anyway for the visit of Burnley.

It's a good problem to have for Hughes, however it does highlight the lack of depth we have at right back unless Valery emerges as a genuine first team contender.

Photo: Action Images via Reuters