Saints fans will hopefully get positive news on Danny Ing's knee, with the striker set to have a scan today, but some fns have questioned why Ings was still on the pitch so late on with the game already won.
Danny Ings is a vital part of the Saints team, although we are far from a one man outfit, it is Ings who is involved in everything going forward as well as being quite useful in defending in his own box as well.
Ings injured his knee as his leg buckled under him in an innocuous challenge with only around 5 minutes remaining in the game, the good news is that although he appeared in pain, he wasn't in agony and was able to walk off the pitch fairly easily as well as watch the final few minutes of the game from the bench with it wrapped in an ice pack.
Ings had had two serious knee injuries in the past, both during his time at Liverpool, with lengthy spells out of action effectively ending his time at Anfield..
But Liverpool's loss was Saints gain and since his arrival at St Mary's he has had the odd injury in his first season, but since then he has been a virtual ever present in the starting line up.
Ralph Hasenhuttl had perhaps the best view of it than most with it happening right in front of the benches, he had this to say.
"This is such a hard game you will also have a few touch duels - maybe some a little too tough,"
"Ingsy's duel does not look good. It was right in front of me and we know his history with his knees. I hope he is okay.
"Let's have a look and hope that nothing is too hard. It did not look good. He has overstretched his knee."
"He was immediately shouting 'my knee! my knee!'. Hopefully, this is not a bad injury. It is not swollen but we will have a look at the scan and will let you know."
With Ings history of injuries and his importance to the side there are some Saints fans who have questioned the decision of Ralph to play the striker to the very end in matches, up to yesterday he had played every minute in every match and taking aside his injury history, his high tempo game and the way he chases every ball will have a physical toll on him.
Against Villa with the game won at 4-1 he should have been brought off around the 80 minute mark to keep him fresh and out of the way of freak accidents such as happened, you can understand keeping him on when the game is still in the balance, but at 4-1 p we should have been able to see the game out with a few tactical substitutions, likewise last week against Everton and the previous home game against West Brom.
We can only keep our fingers crossed and home that this injury is not too serious, although I would be surprised to see him start against Newcastle, however with a two week International break after that it does give him time to rest the knee and get back to fitness.