Saints only have a small injury problem for the trip to Molineaux and it's Shane Long's toe according to the latest news from St Mary's

Mark Hughes has confirmed that he only has one injury issue in the squad for the trip to the Black Country on Saturday and that is Shane Long who has a toe problem.

We’ve only got a doubt on Shane Long who has got a problem with his toe again,”

“Shane hasn’t trained today or at all with the group this week. It’s not settling down as well as we would like so it needs a bit of further investigation. As it stands now he unfortunately will miss out."

But apart from Long, Hughes will have a full squad to pick from with the return of Danny Ings who was ineligible to play at Anfield last weekend and the likely return of both Moi Elyounoussi and Manolo Gabbiadini who missed the trip to Merseyside with minor knocks.

Hughes continued.

"Moi and Gabbi weren’t available for Liverpool but thankfully they trained today. As long as they don’t get a reaction overnight, they should be an option for us.

"It’s a strong squad; the only negative from that situation is that you have to disappoint a lot of guys who have trained very well during the week."

“It was a loss last week without Danny, he has brought an edge to what we can offer at the top end of the pitch,” Hughes concluded. “His ball retention and ability in possession brings people into the game and you will always miss someone of his quality.

“He’s had two weeks of solid work having had a bit of a fragmented schedule beforehand. It’s been the best fortnight leading into a game that he’s had since he joined.

"The continuity of his work at the training ground is good and it’s promising to think that he’s been scoring without that so far.”

Hughes is right though about the big squad, although he appears to be settling on a core of players whom he considers first choice, he seems a little uncertain about other positions and who to play where and when with the supporters not always agreeing with his selections.

Stuart Armstrong for instance looked good in pre season but seems to have dropped out of the picture once the Premier League season got underway although he got in a good shift at Liverpool.

Photo: Action Images

DPeps added 09:46 - Sep 28 No related to the above story, but just putting it out there: We need to get on the phone to Arsenal and get Ramsey as soon as he's available on a free. Yes, his wages would be expensive, but how much are we paying our bench at the moment? not to mention the players out on loan?
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Wembley76 added 11:03 - Sep 28 Sorry DPeps but are you mad? Ramsey was being offered £250,000 per WEEK (!) for a FIVE YEAR contract...... you do the maths!
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DPeps added 13:35 - Sep 28 Ah, ok. I withdraw my suggestion. Although, I wonder how much we're still paying Forster + Clasie + Boufal + Carillo (have I missed anyone?)
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SaintBrock added 14:13 - Sep 28 Ramsey won't be leaving The Emirates. All the buzz is from his agent trying to up the ante to get his client even more dosh. In any case It is doubtful he's ever heard of Southampton.
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SaintBrock added 14:19 - Sep 28 We should be heaps better without Long so no loss there. Guess we'll start with Redmond-Ings-Elyonoussi on top in a 4-3-3 or 4-3-2-1. Romeu in the middle to plug the gap between Vestergaard & Hoedt assuming Yoshi will get ignored once again.
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underweststand added 15:20 - Sep 28 I'm still waiting for Hoedt to be MoM ..sometime. His lapses of concentration and slow reactions are too costly for Saints . (not referring to the comical own goal at Anfield either.) He should be dropped for a game or two and get some meaningful input from the coaching staff if he is to improve. I don't expect Yoshida to get another 3 year contract, but meantime he is one of the most experienced players in the squad, and would give more support to Vestergaard- for a while anyway. He went a long way to helping Jack Stephens improve his game last season . I'd go with Saint Brock's suggestion for tomorrow's start forward line, but is Hughes ever going to experiment with Austin AND Ings playing together ?

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