Saints striker Cyle Larin is set to missing again as the team travel to West Bromwich Albion for what will be the second game out of three this week, although his absence in the last two games has not had a negative affect.

To start with the good news from Tonda Eckert's press conference as reported by the The Daily Echo Flynn Downes is fit to play after his 15 minute cameo against QPR, hoever whether he will start after Cameron Bragg's man of the match performance is another matter.

But the bad news is that Cyle Larin & Caspar Jander are not likely to play and the manager had this to say when asked whether Larin would miss not only the West Brom game but the trip to Preston on Saturday:

"Yeah, it's a fair assessment. I mean, it's... I said this earlier, Cyle, he knows his body. But he's... I mean, even on Saturday, he's the happiest player.

"It's just not so often for a striker to be so good with a team. And yeah, it's a decision about how much we want to rush, and I think that's still open.

"And at the same time, if you have something towards the bottom end of your hamstring, it's always a question of how much risk you want to take.

"Especially if then after you go into an international break, as we do. So I think we'll assess it. But I wouldn't rule out that he might be available."

So that seems to suggest that Larin is a little way off a return for a week or so, Tonda has given his usual response on a player injury where he gives little away.

Ironically although we have been missing Larin who has hit 7 goals in his 11 appearances in the League this season, we have goals in all areas of the team and since his absence we have scored 7 in the 2 full games he has missed.

There was seemingly no mention about Caspar Jander and our manager is a man who if he is not asked a question then he doesn't give the answer, however earlier in the week he had said that Jander had a muscle injury:

"It's a little muscular one, as he picked that one up in training on Tuesday. Obviously not great, but I hope it's not too bad,"

That again is very coy, but it usually means the player is going to be out, however it is an area on the field where we have a number of players who can fill in.

With Downes fit to start, Eckert will have to make a decision on who will be his two holding players after Cameron Bragg's performance on Saturday and that has to be a good thing.

TUi Own