Southampton lost both central defenders to injury in the first 37 minutes of Saturday's game against Tottenham Hotspur, read on for more news on those injuries and the options we have going forward.

Armando Bella Kotchap has been in fine form in the Saints defence under Ruben Selles and had been getting back to the standards he had been setting before the World Cup break that saw him get into the Germany side for that tournament.

So it was a blow when after a fairly innocuous challenge he was lead off clearly in distress with his arm being supported in his shirt.

There is no clear news yet from St Mary's, but if it is another shoulder injury then he will have to spend some time out, when he suffered the last injury on 16th October against West Ham he spent exactly 3 weeks out of action, returning for the visit of Newcastle on the 6th November and also started the game at Anfield a week later.

So we can perhaps expect to see him return after a similar space of time, the good news is that for the next two weeks we do not have a game due to the International break.

On his social media Bella-Kotchap has already posted this message to Saints fans.

“I’ll be back soon, thank you Saints family.”

But if losing one central defender was a blow, losing a second half an hour later was catastrophic as we had only names one central defender on the bench, that being Mohamed Salisu who had replaced Bella-Kotchap.

Reports say that Bednarek has broken a rib and if that is the case then he will likely be out for a longer period of time.

I know from experience that breaking a rib is very painful, there is very little that can be done apart from sit back with a few painkillers and wait for it to mend, that timescale will depend on how quickly Bednarek recovers from injury, some people take longer than others.

I would be very surprised if he is back within a month perhaps longer, although I hope that I am proved wrong because the Polish defender has gone some way to mending his relationship with Saints supporters by putting in some decent performances recently.

On paper though we can cover this, we still have Salisu plus Duje Caleta-Car and Lyanco in reserve, neither of whom were on the bench on Saturday, we also have James Bree who has played in that position for Luton in the past, other than that though we have no other cover for the position other than utilising Ainsley Maitland-Niles again as emergency cover.

Both Caleta-Car and Lyanco have put in shifts this season and there were many who thought that Caleta -Car & Salisu were our best options in the centre a month or so ago, but it is not an ideal situation for obvious reasons, especially as I would say that neither ABK or Bedanrek will be fit for the trip to West Ham on 2nd April.

However the week after it is Manchester City at home, so that will be a bit of a free hit and hopefully the following week against Crystal Palace we will have at least one of the two injured duo back in action.

Photo: Action Images

Bowlercow added 10:44 - Mar 20 Last time he did this he was advised to have it pinned He refused because it would have ruled him out of Germany's world cup squad He could possibly come back in three weeks again and then have surgery during the summer That would at least mean he will start next season as a Saint
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highfield49 added 12:58 - Mar 20 As you've already stated Nick we have at least two and arguably four experienced players able to play alongside Salisu if the injuries are long term. Compared to where we were in recent seasons with a bunch of central defenders none of us had any confidence in it's not a big deal at present. With that said I have to say how impressed I've been with AMN in recent weeks, from a player who had rumoured fitness and attitude problems not many months ago he's turned into a starter candidate in defence or midfield. Depending on how things pan out for the rest of the season I'm hoping he might be with us for longer than his current loan.

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Bridders2 added 18:41 - Mar 20 We beat Crystal Palace, Man City and Everton with Caleta-Car and Salisu conceding just 2 goals and our defence looked very composed. So these injuries might actually help us. Let's hope so.
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Monksway added 11:04 - Mar 21 It was noticeable that with the ABK injury on Saturday we had a team that was the same as last year with only Bazunu for Forster and Lavia for Romeu changes. Although we have undoubtedly improved strength in depth it indicates the flawed transfer policy of Sport Republic.
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underweststand added 08:31 - Mar 23 it's good that there are a few other names to consider especially as the JB / ABK partnership was beginning to look good for awhile there. I 've always liked Caleta-Car but Lyanco also DAJFU with enthusiasm although he can also be seen as a somewhat of " a loose cannon " in some situations. Critical injuries to CB's often come at awkward times, and I can recall that almost 20 years ago, we had a situation with 5 injured CB's (!) and an unlikely hero appeared in the shape of the much-neglected utility defender Chris Baird. Such was his success that it boosted his N.I. international career and a 3 million move to Fulham. Hopefully, ABK will be fit again to return, but (as mentioned above), rib injury can take some time to recover from so hopefully JB will be back available soon.

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