After 3 months out of action Russell Martin has confirmed that Southampton's longest serving first team squad member has returned to full time training after being side lined back on the 26th August in the home win over Queens Park Rangers.
As Saints prepare to travel to Yorkshire to take on Huddersfield Town and look to increase their unbeaten run to 9 games, Russell Martin has confirmed that Jack Stephens has returned to full training with the Southampton squad.
"We had Jack Stephens back out on the grass today, so he got a bit of a round of applause this morning in the meeting room,” Martin told the media at his pre-match press conference.
"It’s a big day for him, the captain, to be back on the grass and training with the group again. He’s worked so hard – the club have documented a bit of that on the social media – but his attitude has been immense.
"He’s going to take a little bit of time, but at least he’s back with the group now. We have to manage him through this period, and hopefully we can get him back in the squad soon.”
That is good news as Saints prepare for a busy period that will see them play 10 Championship games between 25th November and 1st January, a five week period.
However Jack will face a tough task to get back into the team, Jan Bednarek and Taylor Harwood-Bellis have been impressive in the past couple of months and Mason Holgate has also shown that he is pushing for a place in the centre of defence after his performance against West Bromwich Albion, not to mention Shea Charles who has also shown that he can play in that position.
But this is a problem that Russell Martin will be pleased to have, and it is good that we will be able to call on 5 options in the centre of the defence in what is going to be a tough period.
The depth of the squad is what I think will see Saints through during the tough winter months, Jack Stephens is probably a few weeks off pushing for a place in the squad and will face a lot of competition, but that has to be good for our promotion challenge.