Ralph Hasenhuttl has confirmed that both Cedric Soares and Moussa Djenepo will remain on the sidelines for this weekend’s vital Premier League match against Chelsea.
Speaking to press ahead of the fixture against the Blues via the Saints’ official Twitter account, the Southampton boss announced that Djenepo remains on the injury table due to his inability to shoot in training, whilst Hasenhuttl also confirmed that right-back Cedric will also miss Sunday’s game.
The Portuguese right-back was due to play against Tottenham last weekend, however, and injury in the warm-up meant Cedric was forced to retire from the game and watch from the sidelines as reported by The Southern Daily Echo, meaning James Ward-Prowse has to fill in at right-wingback.
Hasenhuttl said about the injury to Djenepo” “Moussa is very difficult to say when he can play again. It’s a high risk at the moment. When you have an injury on a muscle you only end when you shoot the ball it’s ok when you don’t shoot. When do you take the risk is the big question?”
This will be the fourth game in a row Djenepo will miss out through injury as numbers from Transfermarkt show, but for Cedric, this will be the first time the defender misses consecutive time away from football due to injury since last December as numbers from Transfermarkt show.
Hasenhuttl said about Cedric’s condition: “No (he won’t be playing against Chelsea on Sunday). He tried to play against Tottenham, which maybe wasn’t the best idea, but he wanted to help the team.”
The Austrian added with “He was in good shape and was looking to back to international football, so he tried to do it against Tottenham. But after the warm-up, the problems he had are too big now and I think it will take until the Wolverhampton game for him to play again.”
Three points will be the only thing on Hasenhuttl’s mind on Sunday when Chelsea, fresh off their Champions League win against Lille, roll into town, yet getting a win now without two important players will be a seemingly harder job for the south coast team.
