Saints boss Ruben Selles faces an anxious wait for his International stars to return to the training ground today so he can have their fitness assessed for the trip to West Ham United on Sunday afternoon, the extra day could be crucial.

The Hammers are posting that David Moyes has a fit squad to choose from on Saturday with the likes of Saints former loanee Antonio said to be ready for a return after missing the game before the International break.

But for Saints the situation is less clear, Jan Bednarek who went off early in the game against Spurs managed two full games for Poland and should be fine to play at the London Stadium, but there are injury issues in the centre of defence that leaves things tight.

Armando Bella- Kotchap has been working in the gym, but it is doubtful that he will have recovered from his shoulder injury for Sunday, the big issue though is Mohammed Salisu who pulled out of the Ghana squad without playing either of their games with an injury that was unspecified.

Saints fans will hope that the cloak of secrecy behind his return home early is more to do with a falling out with new coach Chris Hughton than an injury, Salisu only returned to the Ghana fold back in September after a disagreement with the former coach, so perhaps this may be the reason he missed the games rather than an injury.

If Salisu is injured then Ruben Selles has to choose who to partner Bednarek with, does he go Duje Caleta-Car who was looking impressive before falling out of favour with Nathan Jones or doe he go for Lyanco, or even Ainsley Maitland-Niles.

Up front Che Adams pulled out of Scotland's 2nd game in the International break with a calf injury sustained in the first game against Cyprus when he came off in the 58th minute, hopefully that is more precautionary and he will be fit to play against West Ham.

But we can handle an injury up front more than we can at the back, this could be the time that Tall Paul Onauchu comes to the fore, cometh the hour cometh the hero is the saying, perhaps this is his time.

Ruben Selles has a plethora of forwards at his disposal and will not be sweating on Adams fitness as much as he will the defensive duo.

It is these three players we are sweating on, the other two long term injuries are still no nearer playing at the moment, Tino Livramento suffered a setback around Xmas time to his recovery with an as yet unexplained injury, he is back on the training ground and could play before the end of the season, but only at the tail end.

Juan Larios could also recover in time to play a part in the final knockings of what has been a strange and awful season.

Photo: Action Images

underweststand added 09:10 - Mar 31 everyone in our squad is capable of DAJFU, and the lack of those "walking wounded " may cause extra problems for WHam, if they can't anticipate who we will field on the day . It could be that our " one-off " selection might be hard for them to predict, as WHam are also in a "bad place" at the moment and can't get results either.
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