Southampton forward may require surgery

Southampton have been in impressive form of late and it is hard to see them losing at home. Bojan, Shaqiri and Afellay are not really strong, physical players, they are technical players.

Striker Long did not suffer any recurrence of an ankle injury while playing for the Republic of Ireland in their Euro 2016 play-off second leg against Bosnia.

England worldwide Rodriguez only returned to action this season following a 16 month lay off following a knee injury, but has now been out of action for over a month.

The last match between these teams was in April of this year and saw Stoke come out victorious at the Britannia thanks to goals from Mame Biram Diouf and Charlie Adam after Morgan Schneiderlin opened the scoring for the visitors.

“I was quite surprised that he played 40 minutes”, he said.

The Southampton manager went on to say, “I understand it was a very important game, about qualification, but if I’m national coach I don’t put a player in after five or six weeks with only one training session”.

“I was surprised”, added the Dutchman.

Stoke defender Marc Muniesa remains on the sidelines with a hamstring injury and sits out the game.

Hughes said: “At the moment, as a outcome of a little bit of luck and the way that we look after our players, we are in good health”.

This Stoke back four – reinforced by Butland who claimed countless free-kick and corner deliveries – has now kept three consecutive clean sheets and, while it is an admittedly small sample size, on this form you’d be hard-pressed to find a more formidable defensive unit in the Premier League. Peter Odemwingie has scored three goals in three Premier League appearances against Southampton.

At the other end Southampton had tentative claims for a penalty when Philipp Wollscheid tugged Pelle to ground, before Tadic shot over the crossbar having surged from his own half in a swift counter-attack.

– Southampton had not lost a league match at home to Stoke City since October 1980 prior to this game, winning seven of the previous 10 meetings.