Southampton: Saints players training at home before returning next week
By Marc Walker
Southampton’s players have been forced to train at home for the rest of this week as their Staplewood training ground undergoes cleaning.
Via a report from the Daily Express (8th October 2020, pg 55), precautions have been taken after Stuart Armstrong’s positive COVID-19 test and the players will return to Staplewood next week.
Armstrong’s positive case was confirmed yesterday by official statements from both Saints and the Scottish FA, with the 28-year-old self-isolating for 10 days following the news.
Saints did confirm that “sensible precautions” were being taken at the training ground in their statement and it now appears that keeping players away and deep cleaning are among the precautionary measures.
Despite this all happening, Ralph Hasenhuttl should have a fully fit squad to face Chelsea on the 17th October.
Armstrong’s 10-day isolation period will take him up to next Friday, but Saints should have Theo Walcott available if the Scotland international is still unavailable.
Seven other Saints players are on international duty and will hope to return in good form after successful times with their countries.
Jan Bednarek and Jannik Vestergaard got off to a good start last night as they both played 90 minutes in wins for Poland and Denmark respectively.
Bednarek was involved in a 5-1 win over the Finland in which West Brom winger Kamil Grosicki scored a hat-trick and two further strikes came from Hertha Berlin’s Krzysztof Piatek and Napoli’s Arkadiusz Milik.
Vestergaard also witnessed heavy scoring from the heart of defence as goals from Andreas Skov Olsen, Christian Eriksen, Joakim Maehle and Andreas Cornelius secured a 4-0 win for Denmark over the Faroe Islands.
Shane Long, Danny Ings, James Ward-Prowse and Ibrahima Diallo will all hope to be involved in fixtures this evening.
Long and the Republic of Ireland face Slovakia, Ings and Ward-Prowse will look for minutes as England play Wales and Diallo is set for action for France Under-21s against Liechtenstein Under-21s.