Saints supporters will be alarmed to hear that Jannik Vestergaard is not likely to return to the Saints line up in the short term, a big blow as the Dane had become an integral part of the squad.
Speaking after the draw at Fulham when asked about the injuries in the squad, Ralph Hasenhuttl gave an update on the injury to central defender Jannik Vestergaard:
"Both Redmond and Ings have muscle injuries and we will have to see. They are both out but not as long as Jannik,"
"Vestergaard will be out for four week, maybe even more, we don't know.
"This is definitely not good," he said.
Vestergaard is struggling with fluid build-up in the knee while Ings (hamstring) and Redmond (hip) both have muscle injuries.
This means that if Hasenhuttl is correct, it will be at least February before the Danish defender will be likely to return to the side, January is a busy month, there are 5 Premier League fixtures scheduled including two midweek fixtures.
February starts with yet another midweek game, meaning that if Vestergaard was to be out for longer than 4 weeks and was not fit for the trip to Newcastle on 6th February, starting with this weeks home game against West Ham he would miss 8 games, when the Fulham game is added that could be almost a quarter of the season and it could be more.
The game at Fulham saw a clean sheet, but in truth Fulham had at least two occasions when players were left completely unmarked and should have scored.
The answer is that we need to look to the future not the past to solve the problem, we have to find out if Salisu is the answer, if he is not then we should consider bringing in someone during the January transfer window, this doesn't need to be a permanent signing, ideally a loan signing with experience in the Premier League, there are plenty of those about.