Southampton: Saints pick up potentially costly injuries in Carabao Cup over Fulham

Southampton beat Fulham 1-0 on Tuesday evening to book themselves into the Carabao Cup third-round.

Michael Obafemi’s second senior goal after 57 minutes proved to be enough to ensure progression despite a number of missed Saints chances at the end of the game.

Whilst Saints fans will be pleased to see their side through to the next stage of the competition, they will be nervously waiting on injury news to come after the win at Craven Cottage.

Both players who were involved in the match-winner – Obafemi and Nathan Redmond – picked up second-half injuries and were replaced after looking in some discomfort.

Whilst other options remain in Obafemi’s role, Redmond will surely be a big miss if he is out for any extended period of time with his ankle complaint.

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Saints boss Ralph Hasenhuttl admitted post-match that Redmond’s ankle “was not that swollen, but did not look good” when speaking to BBC Radio Solent, and that is likely to mean that he misses Saturday’s Premier League clash with Manchester United.

Pictures on social media did show the 25-year-old leaving Craven Cottage with a protective boot on his foot, although this is a common precautionary measure whatever the severity of the injury.

After showing some superb form during the second half of the 2018/19 campaign, Redmond is a key attacking presence for Saints and has got his new season up and running in the last week with a goal versus Brighton and an assist at Fulham.

As for Obafemi, the hope will be that it is not another hamstring issue for the 19-year-old.

He has had a recurring problem before and Hasenhuttl has regularly spoken about the extra care that the Saints coaches have to take when managing his workload and recovery.

Redmond was perhaps the more obvious starter at St Mary’s this coming weekend and creative responsibilities will transfer to the likes of Moussa Djenepo or Sofiane Boufal if he is absent.