Downes back for Boro trip
Southampton manager Russell Martin confirmed midfielder Flynn Downes will return to the squad for his side's Sky Bet Championship trip to Middlesbrough on Saturday.
The 24-year-old midfielder was substituted on 50 minutes of the defeat to Leicester City last Friday, causing him to miss Tuesday's clash against Ipswich Town.
"Flynn [Downes] is fine," confirmed the manager. "Flynn will be back in the squad, which is brilliant. Janny [Bednarek] got on the pitch and is fine too, ready to go."
Martin also offered an update on the longer term injuries within the squad, starting with deadline day signing Ross Stewart.
"Ross [Stewart] is doing really nicely, he’s coming along really nicely, I don’t think it will change from what I told you guys a week or so ago.
"We’re probably looking [at a return] after this block of games and the next international break. But he’s really integrating into the team nicely, great energy.
Russell Martin urges patience onJack Stephens' recovery.
"Jack [Stephens] been a huge loss to us. Not just on pitch but he’s the one player with real voice, he’s really demanding of people but in a real nice way.
"He’s been a real loss for us so the quicker we can get him on the pitch the better, but also the quicker we can get him back on the training pitch the better.
"It’s been a bit of a slow process these first few weeks because of the injury he’s had, so he’s been frustrated. He still plays a really important part in the background, just not as big a part as he’d like or how we’d like.
"But he is coming along nicely, he’s made big progress in last week or so but I don’t think we should expect him any time in this block of games either, we’ll assess it as it goes but he’s still quite a way off."
Lastly the manager updated on the progress of youngster Sam Amo-Ameyaw, who has seen his minutes drop since the return of Kamaldeen and the arrival of Ryan Fraser.
"He'll play for the Under-21s tonight. We have a group of really talented young players with huge potential. To put him into the team at the moment would be unfair on him because we need to get through this period.
"We try to give him extra stuff every single day as we do with Jayden [Meghoma], Kami [Doyle] and Tyler [Dibling], the guys who train with us regularly. Then we assess when they need a game."
