Ralph Hasenhuttl admitted he cannot remember facing an injury crisis as severe as the one he is currently having to manage at Saints, but insisted he was “not scared” of giving more opportunities to youngsters. Saints were without nine first-team stars for Tuesday night’s FA Cup contest against Shrewsbury Town due to injury, while a further six were left out of the starting XI to keep them fresh for the upcoming schedule. That saw four players handed their debuts against the League One side with Kegs Chauke and Caleb Watts starting the fixture, while Alex Jankewitz and Ryan Finnigan were introduced from a youthful bench. Young striker Dan N’Lundulu also made his first start for the club up front, scoring in the 2-0 victory.
And while Hasenhuttl hopes that situation will ease over the next two to three weeks, he is still set to call upon a swathe of academy talents to fill the matchday squad against Arsenal in the FA Cup at the weekend.
Ralph Hasenhuttl said “I cannot remember, no. But I also cannot remember that we ever had such a situation like we have at the moment with massive games in the short term, less recovery options here, we cannot use any facilities indoors and no pre-season at all. I had never such a situation. This is the reason why I can also not remember having so many problems with injuries. Although we have not every player on board, they are coming back hopefully over the next two to three weeks and more and more options then for me are available. But if you have to replace somebody, it should never be a big issue because for the short-term it must be always possible to replace him. For the long-term, you definitely lose quality, this is no question. There is a reason why some players are worth 30 or 40 million and others are just coming up. There must be a difference. But in the end it must be always possible to replace players for a short-term and this is what we have to do with the young ones. I am not scared of giving them a chance and winning games with them.”
