Ralph Hasenhuttl has confirmed that there are no new injuries for the visit of Tottenham Hotspur on Saturday but Danny Ings will not be risked.

The good news for Saints fans is that Ralph Hasenhuttl's squad have not picked up any new injuries, the bad news for Saints fans in the short term is that Danny Ings looks unlikely to play any part.

Hasenhuttl has opted for caution after seeing Ings continually return from injury and then pull up again in what has been a stop and start 2019 for the striker.

"Danny is not in the group at the moment," he said in his pre-match press conference.

"We didn’t take any risks, we want to give him the time to come back during the three-week break. We will play a friendly against a Championship team and he can play for 45 minutes maybe in that time and build up his fitness."

"This is a new situation for me, missing a game for the cup. To have such a long break during the season is unnatural. We will have everyone here for the first week and then not for the second because some will leave for their national teams."

"In that first week, we will take a few early steps towards the Brighton match but when they go to their national teams maybe they will forget what we worked on. We will try to find some rhythm but it’s not easy."

From a cautious point of view by the time Ings returns for the Brighton game he will have had 2 months to recover and should hopefully be fully fit again and able to play the final 8 games of the season and that should be a big boost to Saints in the final run in.

But for the visit of Spurs it will leave him short up front, Shane Long was missing last week at Old Trafford and it is unclear whether that was tactical with Hasenhuttl opting for Sam Gallagher on the bench ahead of himor whether the Irish striker had picked up a slight knock.

Photo: Action Images

dirk_doone added 16:39 - Mar 7 In the 2nd half of the United game we saw the introduction of Ralph's revolutionary new 5-5 system to cope with the fact we've got no strikers left. I guess as strikers are by far and away the most expensive players to buy, it was almost inevitable that with our penny pinching owners we'd eventually end up without any.
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wessexman added 16:48 - Mar 7 Even if Ings stays fit for the remaining fixtures, can we really afford to make his move permanent? The club has made too many dud signings recently. IF we survive, there has to be a root and branch reform of our transfer policy.
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1970 added 18:00 - Mar 7 I'm not sure it matters who we play, spuds will be way too strong for our feeble defence I suppose a draw would be a bonus but just cant see anything other than away win, and as above have mentioned about transfers I suspect we had no intention of buying ings right from the start but we'll see in the summer, coyr
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saint66 added 21:29 - Mar 7 Well having read articles regarding the Saints accounts for 2017/18 season and registered that the profits are down to £35.2 million which takes into account the sale of Van Dijk and Rodrigues I am somewhat concerned as to what is going to happen regarding the purchase of players next season. We have £19 million committed for the purchase of Ings who hardly seems to play and I heard the MD of Saints in an interview earlier today state that Mr GAO will not be investing money into the club and it will have to be self sufficient in its transfer dealing. We are left with players who are not worth a lot and we could be playing in the Championship next season so how under the current club structure will the club survive especially with the salaries some of our non playing players are on. I really feel sorry for our manager Ralph.

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vanmans added 22:27 - Mar 7 Danny Ings was a sick note at Liverpool and he still is here at Southampton. We should send him back to Liverpool in the summer.
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DPeps added 06:24 - Mar 8 The defence is identified as the major problem by many, but for Ralph I suspect the strikers are the biggest headache, which is why there seemed to be such a concerted effort to sign Che Adams in January. Of the strikers we have, only 2 seem to fit the Ralph mould (energetic, quick): Long and Obafemi. Long is aging and has never been a prolific scorer, and Obafemi appears to have injury issues - although hopefully that's just due to his body adjusting to the new training. Even if we stay up there is much to ponder on. I don't think buying Ings is the answer, seeing as we'd have to buy another striker to cover his various injuries.

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underweststand added 14:14 - Mar 8 As I understood it.. Danny Ings will be a Saints player for the next 3 years - regardless. His first year (now ) is a loan deal and he becomes a permanent addition in the summer. Unless there is special clause in the contract regarding Injuries or whatever, we must hope that he will return to some sort of "Ralph fitness level", and that he will score goals whenever he is running around and 100% fit. We are talking about a player who has had 2 injury spells (totalling 11 Prem. games) ....yet is still our top scorer so far this season. In addition to this, he will miss the Spurs game, and also the return Liverpool fixture as he is only on loan this season, and therefore can't play against his old club. Whilst Charlie Austin remains fit enough to play, he is good fpr 60 minutes, and I suspect that the same will apply to Danny after he returns. Whoever becomes part of our new "strike force" next seasson must be sure to bring his shooting boots with him.

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SanMarco added 17:36 - Mar 8 "Ings misses game" is not news I'm afraid. I hope underweststand is wrong because at any club the main goalscorer has to play, what's the point in him otherwise.
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