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Southampton: Mark Hughes could risk Cedric this weekend against Burnley

By Chris Hughes

MARSEILLE, FRANCE - JUNE 30: Rui Patricio (L) of Portugal is congratulated by his team mate Cedric Soares (R) after their team's win through the penalty shootout in the UEFA EURO 2016 quarter final match between Poland and Portugal at Stade Velodrome on June 30, 2016 in Marseille, France. (Photo by Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images)
MARSEILLE, FRANCE - JUNE 30: Rui Patricio (L) of Portugal is congratulated by his team mate Cedric Soares (R) after their team's win through the penalty shootout in the UEFA EURO 2016 quarter final match between Poland and Portugal at Stade Velodrome on June 30, 2016 in Marseille, France. (Photo by Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images) /
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Southampton manager Mark Hughes has today suggested that Portuguese right-back Cedric Soares could still feature this weekend in the Saints’ Premier League opener against Burnley.

This comes despite the fact the 26-year-old hasn’t played a single minute of football since  featuring for Portugal in the World Cup, meaning he’ll go into the Premier League campaign having not played in over a month.

However, speaking to the Daily Echo, the Welsh manager confirmed that because of Cedric’s impressive day-to-day fitness levels, he may risk playing the ex-Sporting right-back this Sunday against Burnley.

"“I think if it was anybody other than Cedric in terms of fitness and worrying whether he could hit the ground running. Cedric is the one guy we wouldn’t worry too much about because he is a fitness guy who loves playing football and loves keeping himself in first class condition.“The fact he’s been off all he’s missed is game time. If he has to go in straightaway and I feel that is the right thing for the team then that’s what I will do.”"

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WIGAN, ENGLAND – MARCH 18: Cedric Soares of Southampton (L) celebrates as he scores their second goal with Dusan Tadic during The Emirates FA Cup Quarter Final match between Wigan Athletic and Southampton at DW Stadium on March 18, 2018 in Wigan, England. (Photo by Alex Livesey/Getty Images)
WIGAN, ENGLAND – MARCH 18: Cedric Soares of Southampton (L) celebrates as he scores their second goal with Dusan Tadic during The Emirates FA Cup Quarter Final match between Wigan Athletic and Southampton at DW Stadium on March 18, 2018 in Wigan, England. (Photo by Alex Livesey/Getty Images) /

Having allowed Jeremy Pied to leave at the end his contract, Cedric is now the club’s only remaining natural right-back, although we’ve seen James Ward-Prowse, Harrison Reed, Matt Targett and Sam McQueen all play there in pre-season, with varying levels of success.

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At one point some supporters even thought that the Portuguese full-back may of been on his way out, as despite returning around the same time as Maya Yoshida the club failed to acknowledge this before Hughes revealed that a ‘stomach bug’ would sideline the 26-year-old for the eventual 3-0 loss to Borussia Monchengladbach.

However at the end of the day, Cedric remains one of the Saints’ most-talented players, and they are definitely better with the right-back on the pitch – especially now they appear to be rotating between 3-5-2 and 3-4-2-1, which requires him to be the most natural wide player down that right flank.

Burnley have to travel to Turkey this Thursday as part of their Europa League proceedings and history has shown that sides competing in the competition often struggle on resulting matchdays.

As a result, Southampton have a serious chance of getting a confidence-boosting win against Sean Dyche’s side this Sunday, which would be especially helpful as their first handful of fixtures are all arguably winnable with a good performance.

After Targett’s impressive display in the win against Celta Vigo a week ago, Mark Hughes does have plenty of options if he doesn’t want to risk playing Cedric, but we won’t know until kick-off on the Sunday.

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