The Saints take on Shrewsbury in the FA Cup in midweek but right before the game manager Ralph Hasenhüttl has lost his ninth player to an injury.
The likes of Danny Ings, Vestergaard, Nathan Redmond and some more are out with various injury problems and after the Leicester City game during the weekend, the name of 20-year-old Will Smallbone has also been added to that list.
The youngster suffered an ACL injury during his appearance vs the Foxes and he’s likely to miss the remainder of the season.
“We have another big injury with Will Smallbone. It’s the worst for him and for us, an ACL injury, so half a year out, maybe,” Hasenhüttl said.
“It’s horrible for the young lad and for us. In the moment with injuries it is definitely not our best run, but there are some circumstances in this strange season that leads to a lot of problems with a topic that we didn’t have for the whole of last season.”
Speaking ahead of their FA Cup clash, the Saints boss explained why the current pandemic situation is to blame for the plethora of injuries in the Southampton camp.
He said in his pre-match press conference: “We have some problems at the moment with muscle injuries and there are some reasons I think that are responsible for this.
“We are in a fantastic building here but we cannot use anything (due to Covid-19). We cannot use our cryo chamber, the sauna, the pool, nothing, and we have still the same games with the same intensity.
“We are also limited in eating here together, so everything is not what we normally do in professional football, and there are reasons why we do it normally, so it’s not so surprising in some moments you have more injuries.”
The Saints have made a superb start to their Premier League campaign and are currently just four points away from the top-four spot on the table. But with so many players out injured, it will not be a surprise if they drop a few points in the coming few weeks, especially since they play teams like Aston Villa, Man United and Chelsea.
