It was good news on Friday when Ralph Hasenhuttl revealed that both Danny Ings and Nathan Redmond had returned to full training and could feature for the trip along the Coast to Brighton on Monday, but will he gamble.
Both Danny Ings and Nathan Redmond have been missed over the past month or so, no one would argue that point of view for Ings, but some would suggest that Redmond has
not been.
However they would be wrong to think that, Saints missed Redmond in both the draw at Wolves and the home defeat to Manchester United, Ralph was forced to play Moussa Djenepo and neither game suited the attacking style of the winger and we saw Ryan Bertrand exposed with Djenepo not having the positional sense needed for the task.
If Nathan Redmond had been available he would have offered a lot more cover to the left back spot and in both games we found ourselves being swamped on that flank.
Against United Ralph made the change in bringing Djenepo off but he was forced to drop Theo Walcott back and that meant that we allowed United to control the game from the back a little more.
So to have both Ings and Redmond back for the trip to Brighton will be good news for Ralph Hasenhuttl as it will give him options.
But with a busy period both pre Xmas and then into the New Year the Austrian will know that if he brings back either too early, it could impact on their availability over that period, if they were too suffer a relapse.
So from this perspective it will be a gamble that Ralph will have to weigh up carefully.
I think that he will not gamble by playing either from the start, not just from the worry that the injury is not yet quite 100% recovered, but from match fitness, neither have played in 5 weeks and will lack match sharpness.
But I do think that both could well feature on the bench against the Seagulls, this would give the manager the opportunity to bring them on should the situation require, but equally to keep them on the bench if the game can be won without their input.
So I do think that Ralph will take a small gamble and they will be on the bench, but I would be surprised if either started the game,