Saints are expecting Dejan Lovren to be fully fit for the trip to Everton tomorrow.

The centre half was missing at Cardiff on Boxing Day, after picking up an illness.

However, Mauricio Pochettino is hopeful that the Croatian international will return to the line-up at Goodison Park.

The same is also true for Nathaniel Clyne, whose fitness will be assessed ahead of kick-off, as he completes his recovery from injury.

“We have Lovren that will probably be fully fit again,” said Pochettino. “Clyne as well. So we will have to assess their fitness.”

The Saints boss added: “We had a last minute illness of Lovren, which ruled him out of the game.

“We will have to assess our injury situation.

“There is players such as Clyne and (Dani) Osvaldo who might be coming back and then there is longer time injuries, such as (Victor) Wanyama and Guly (do Prado) and (Artur) Boruc who will definitely not be back.

“When you get a win you get good energy and that speeds up the recovery process of some players.”

If Clyne does not make it back then Calum Chambers should continue to deputise at right-back.

Maya Yoshida, who played at Cardiff, will also be on standby.

Pochettino seemed less certain about Osvaldo’s return after sustaining a kick in training last week, although he is unlikely to be keen to alter his attacking line-up much anyway after the performance in Wales two days ago.

One player who he will definitely need to replace is Morgan Schneiderlin, who picked up his fifth yellow card of the season during the match at Cardiff and now faces a one-match ban.

“We always want to have our quality players, our best players, on the pitch,” said Pochettino. “In this case we won’t have him, but there will be another player that will perform the same, or even better, than him.

“It’s a shame we lose certain players because they are banned or injured, but we have other players available to us that will do equally as well.”

For Everton, Tim Howard and Gareth Barry will both sit out the clash with Saints at Goodison Park due to suspension. Howard's ban comes after the goalkeeper was shown a straight red card in the 1-0 home loss to Sunderland on Boxing Day, while for on-loan Manchester City midfielder Barry the supension is the result of him picking up his fifth booking of the season in that game.

Forward Kevin Mirallas was substituted at half-time during the contest having felt unwell and it remains to be seen whether or not he or Toffees full-back Leighton Baineshas recovered from his broken toe.