Southampton: Saints dealt blow with star man’s positive Covid-19 test

Southampton have been dealt a blow after star striker Danny Ings returned a positive Covid-19 test after playing against Liverpool 10 days ago.

A tweet from the official Saints Twitter account revealed that the 28-year-old is due to return to first-team training on Friday but is likely to miss Saturday’s trip to Leicester.

Ings has already had two injury issues to deal with this season and it is positive news that this latest setback will not keep him out for longer than this weekend.

Ralph Hasenhuttl revealed the news on Ings in his pre-match press conference (via journalist Tom Leach) and said:

"“Danny Ings is out now. He is in self-isolation. He may have been contagious against Liverpool. We have had no other positives since.”"

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Ings has missed four league games this season after knee and hamstring issues respectively. His knee problem picked up in the 4-3 win at Aston Villa back in November saw him requiring surgery to fix a minor issue.

For this reason, his goalscoring exploits have been interrupted so far – he has seven goals from his 14 appearances to date and Saints will be relying on him to find the net consistently in the second half of this 2020/21 campaign.

It must be said that it is good news that no other Saints players have returned positive Covid-19 tests after the 1-0 win over Liverpool and, indeed, that Ings looks to be returning to training fit and well.

Subject to a negative test, it is still possible that he may return to the matchday squad for Saturday. However, Ralph Hasenhuttl prefers his players to have a full quota of training with their teammates before coming back in to play his high-pressing style.

One positive for Saints is the return of first-choice goalkeeper Alex McCarthy who returns to contention after is own period of self-isolation that saw him miss the win over Liverpool.