Russell Martin opens up on £10 million star's injury

Last season, Southampton signed prolific Sunderland centre forward Ross Stewart in a £10 million transfer move as the Saints prepared for their Championship campaign. The Scotland international enjoyed two successful goalscoring seasons at Sunderland scoring 26 goals alongside providing three assists in the 2021/22 season to guide the six-time English Champions to promotion towards the Championship and scored ten goals in the next season as well. Therefore, the Saints decided to bolster their attack by securing the services of the 28-year-old in order to achieve promotion back to the Premier League. 

However, Stewart was sidelined with a hamstring injury for nearly the entire season and could make only four appearances for Russell Martin's side, coming as a second half substitute in all of them. Last month, the 28-year-old fully recovered from his injury and made bright cameos against Everton and Bournemouth in recent weeks. With other forwards struggling to score goals at the beginning of the season, manager Russell Martin gave Stewart his first start for Southampton against Arsenal in the Premier League.

Russell Martin opens up on £10 million star's injury

However, things didn't went good for Stewart who had to be substituted with Cameron Archer around the half an hour mark following a muscle injury. Stewart looked uncomfortable and had to depart the pitch on his first Premier League start, with manager Russell Martin analysing his injury after the 3-1 defeat, saying,

"He's got a muscle injury. I am absolutely gutted for him, he's worked so hard to come back. It's hard for him to deal with but he has a huge resilience and character, so we'll have to go again and see how long he's going to be."

- Russell Martin

Stewart has had frequent injuries at Southampton and might have to spend some more time on the sidelines with the recent muscle injury. In his absence, substitute Cameron Archer made an incredible run into the Arsenal half and took few calm and composed touches before placing the ball in the bottom corner away from David Raya. Therefore, Southampton will hope that Cameron Archer continues scoring goals regularly for the Saints in the Premier League until the Scotland international recovers from his injury.