Southampton’s squad will be stretched once again when they take on West Ham on Tuesday, with Danny Ings set to be unavailable once again and Nathan Redmond also likely to miss out, as reported by Hampshire Live.
Both players were notable absentees for the trip to Fulham on Saturday, and the Saints lacked their usual creative spark in the attacking third and had to settle for a goalless draw. Therefore, Ralph Hasenhuttl must decide whether to persist with Shane Long up front or play Theo Walcott alongside Che Adams as he has done previously.
Ings has endured a frustrating last few weeks which saw his excellent early season form come to a halt. The 28-year-old has provided six goals and three assists in 10 Premier League starts for Southampton (Sofascore), illustrating how vital he is to their attack. However, Hasenhuttl confessed that he had made a mistake in bringing the striker back into the fold too quickly after his recent knee injury.
Whilst Redmond is not always a guaranteed starter, he has been a reliable option to bring off the bench to change things up in the closing stages of matches. The 26-year-old winger has made just three starts and a further six substitute appearances in the league, but in that time he has averaged 1.1 shots and 1.3 successful dribbles per game (Sofascore).
However, according to Hampshire Live, the pair are likely to miss out once again when Southampton host West Ham on Tuesday, although it is believed that their injuries are not as bad as the one suffered by Jannik Vestergaard.
Read Southampton verdict
This is one of the most testing periods in the season for any squad in the Premier League, and Southampton are impacted by multiple injury issues at the moment. Ings’ extra quality and attacking instincts were missed against Fulham and there were moments where he may well have done better in the final third had he found himself in similar positions to Long and Adams.
Hasenhuttl needs to learn the lessons from what he did with Ings when he returned from his knee injury and not rush him back from this hamstring issue. One would imagine that the manager isn’t going to make that particular mistake a second time.
Redmond is a valuable squad player and someone who could well have been rotated into the starting line-up during this hectic period of fixtures. However, he will now need to focus on getting himself back to full fitness and then really start to make a strong case for a prolonged return to the starting line-up.
