With an in-form Bournemouth side awaiting them in a South Coast derby, Southampton could now be without one experienced leader alongside the issue with Jack Stephens.
Southampton injury news
10 points adrift of safety, Southampton are all but down and out in the Premier League with 14 games remaining. But that’s not to say they don’t have the chance to at least restore some pride to their campaign. Ivan Juric has shown in glimpses just how he could make his mark on the Saints if given a full season to do so.
Recent victory over Ipswich Town was one of the biggest signs that the former Serie A manager has shown that he could yet have a future at St Mary’s. Now, the aim should be to shape his identity more and more whilst crucially moving beyond Derby County’s historic 11-point record.
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Needing just two points to avoid that disastrous record, Southampton should have more than enough to avoid further embarrassment and perhaps even bring their rivals’ form to a crashing halt in doing so this weekend.
What will far from help their form, however, is the latest injury news. As revealed by Juric, Adam Lallana could now miss the Bournemouth game and be forced to sit out alongside Taylor Harwood-Bellis and Stephens.
Whilst Stephens and Harwood-Bellis are not fresh concerns, Lallana’s latest injury is a new blow for Juric to contend with. Already without captain Stephens, the Saints need the experienced midfielder’s leadership more than ever. Alas, in what sums his career up at times, Lallana has been hit with injury at the most frustrating time.
Despite coming full circle by rejoining his boyhood club in the summer, it has not been the return that Lallana would have been hoping for.
More injury frustration for "brilliant" Lallana
Of course, this isn’t Lallana’s first rodeo on the injury front. Far from it. The former Liverpool man spent a lot of his time at Anfield on the sidelines to bring his rise to a crashing halt despite getting off to the perfect start when Jurgen Klopp arrived.
As his injuries kept coming, so did fresh Liverpool stars to leave the midfielder tumbling down the pecking order. Leaving as a Premier League and Champions League winner nonetheless, Lallana is still a man met with ovation in the red half of Merseyside.
Now back at Southampton all these years later following a brief Brighton & Hove Albion stint, whilst his injury struggles have not ended, Lallana’s experience – as Russell Martin highlighted – is invaluable.
Martin told reporters when the veteran midfielder returned when still in charge last summer: “He’s been brilliant. To be on the pitch was not the only reason we signed Adam. I said that at the time. He’s going to really drive things for us with the players in that group and be a voice.
“He is already (a voice) in the meetings, which is brilliant. It’s enabling the others to grow a little bit and lead a bit. Taylor, Flynn, Jack, all those guys. “