Saints are hoping that Dani Osvaldo will be fit to return to action for tomorrow’s game against Chelsea after two weeks of being unable to train.

The club record signing picked up a knock at Newcastle which forced him out of contention for a while. After recovering he fell ill, which has subsequently laid him low.

It is frustrating for Saints who technically have the Italian available after appealing his violent conduct charge from the FA, which is expected to be adjudicated on before the FA Cup third-round clash with Burnley at the weekend.

With Kelvin Davis having returned to the Saints goal against Everton and Nathaniel Clyne coming on as a second-half sub, it seems that finally the injury backlog is starting to clear.

Mauricio Pochettino will also have Morgan Schneiderlin back for the Chelsea fixture after the midfielder served his one-game ban for picking up five bookings.

Everybody else has survived the new year cut off and can now rest easy with the next ban coming for ten yellow cards.

Pochettino reported: “Artur Boruc is out, Wanyama is out too and they are definitely both not playing. We will see the progress of Osvaldo. He picked up a knock against Newcastle and then an illness so he hasn’t been able to train for the last 15 days.

“Clyne is recovering and he featured yesterday (Sunday).”

When asked on what grounds Saints have appealed Osvaldo’s FA Charge he added: “If we want to defend our player it’s clear that we can.

“We believe our player deserves to be defended.”

Pochettino also cleared up why Kelvin Davis was skippering the side at Everton.

Though Davis is club captain, Adam Lallana normally wears the armband on matchdays.

“It was all just a nice gesture for Adam Lallana in forwarding the captaincy to Kelvin. There was nothing in it,” he said.

“Kelvin is the club captain but he is also a team captain, as is Jose Fonte, Rickie Lambert.

“Basically they all made the decision in the end but it was basically just a nice gesture from Adam to Kelvin.”

Saints are also hoping to get more out of Gaston Ramirez after the £12m man scored the equaliser at Goodison Park.

“Gaston scored an amazing goal and it was important for his confidence to get that playing time and that goal as well,” reflected Pochettino.

“He played over 30 minutes and I think he played very well and it’s only going to help to boost his confidence.”