Ralph Hasenhuttl has been speaking to the press ahead of the trip to South Yorkshire to take on ex Saints player Chris Wilder's Sheffield United in a big game for both sides, but he has some positive news.
As reported earlier today by this site, three key injured players returned to training this week and now manager Ralph Hasenhuttl has this to say:
"The injury news is so far that we have a few players back training; Ibra, Taki and Kyle," Hasenhüttl commented.
"They are in the sessions. If they are available for the game, we'll have to have a look. But it looks good. We may have a few more alternatives on the weekend.
"We have to pay attention with Moussa [Djenepo], he has a big injury history since he's been with us here. Three games in a week is a bit difficult for him, I think. We need to be careful how we manage the load.
"Theo [Walcott] was the worst of all the muscle injuries. I hope that after the international break he will be back. He's had a good impact for us this season."
So for once there is some good news on the injury front, although it is unlikely that Ralph will risk all three in the starting line up, he might risk one with the other two on the bench, thus giving him the luxury of some options that he hasn't had.
Some Saints supporters have complained about a lack of a plan B in this horrible run, I say that he can't have a plan B when he is so short of experienced proven players in the squad, judge the manager on what he does with a full squad, not when he is missing almost half of his usual matchday squad.
This might not be the game when Ralph has all those options back, but just one extra of these three will make a big difference on Saturday.