Southampton: Saints facing mini defensive crisis ahead of Burnley game

This weekend Southampton face Burnley and have a slight shortage of centre-halves for the vital encounter at Turf Moor.

It’s far from the end of the world at this point with both of the Saints’ first-choice centre-backs fit and available for the first of three away league games in four.

However, following yesterday’s news that Florin Gardos had been loaned back to his native Romania, the Saints could be in serious trouble is one of their defenders suffers a knock.

Despite initially suggesting that only Shane Long would be absent for the FA Cup trip to West Brom this past Saturday, the Saints were instead without as many as three of their first team players – among them was Maya Yoshida.

The Japanese international has since tweeted a picture of himself in a leg brace meaning it’s unlikely he’ll be back to full fitness for the game against Sean Dyche’s side – if anything he could miss several games of this important six-game stretch which includes the quarter-final game against Wigan.

Next: Southampton 1-2 West Brom: Match recap

As a result, Southampton will almost surely be forced to deploy Jan Bednarek on the bench as the back-up option to Jack Stephens and Wesley Hoedt – but it begs the question as to what would happen if any of those three were to also suffer setbacks in this crucial period.

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Bednarek has only started twice all season and neither of those occasions have been in the league – in fact, only one of them has been at his natural centre-back position too.

The Polish international was brought in a fair fee of £6 million over the summer but hasn’t made as big an impact as the supporters might of perhaps thought he would’ve despite his tender age.

Nontheless, the 21-year-old may be forced to step up in the coming weeks, at which point Southampton have be forced to use as defender from the Under-23’s as their bench option.

A solid run of form over the next month could all-but secure Premier League survival as previously mentioned – the Saints will face a lot teams around them it offers them their best chance to drag themselves out of the bottom three.

Supporters will be hoping for no more injury setbacks having not brought in much reinforcement in January, especially considering the sale of Virgil van Dijk to Liverpool. The lack of replacement for the Dutchman is seeming more and more of a foolish move by the week.