Sadio Mane faces a race against time to return fit and ready to face Sunderland at the weekend.

The pacy midfielder played 90 minutes last night as Senegal slipped to a 1-0 stoppage time defeat against Tunisia in the Africa Cup of Nations qualifying stages.

The result leaves Senegal still in the second automatic qualifying spot in their group, but with a massive game against Egypt, who sit just a point below them, next time out.

Should Senegal qualify then Mane will miss several weeks of football with Saints in January and February next year to play in the tournament.

For now Mane is hoping to return to the south coast in good time, and good enough physical condition, to face the Black Cats.

Mane has been away with Senegal for the entirety of the international break, meaning he will, at best, get just one light training session with his teammates tomorrow morning ahead of the visit of Sunderland to St Mary’s on Saturday as Premier League action resumes.

However, with a flight back today and the travel as well as the game to recover from, Ronald Koeman will make a late call on whether Mane will be able to start the fixture.

Despite a horrible miss at the end of Saints’ last game against Tottenham, Mane has made a big impression in the last few weeks as he broke into the first team following his summer move to St Mary’s.

Koeman would love to have Mane’s pace and skill available to take on Sunderland, but also has Shane Long as an alternative to draft into the side if it is decided that the winger is not quite ready and instead needs to start the game on the bench.

Emmanuel Mayuka is also in a similar situation to Mane having played for Zambia last night.

Mayuka is probably less of a concern given that he has yet to make it beyond being an unused sub for Saints this season, but showed some form as he scored as his country boosted their chances of reaching the finals with a 3-0 win.

The Saints squad have slowly started returning to the south coast after international duty for 16 players.

All those that are back will train today and their fitness assessed.

Thankfully, of those who were away for games played as late as Tuesday, several were unused subs which means they should return fit and fresh for duty, which will be a big boost to Saints.

It is one they will need too as Sunderland have not suffered as badly with international call-ups, with less than half the number Saints have had.

While Saints have had 16 players away on international duty, Sunderland have had just seven call-ups.

Santiago Vergini had a fair distance to travel back after playing for Argentina in Hong Kong, but was fortunate that his fixture was an early one on Tuesday.

John O’Shea was the hero as he scored a late equaliser for Republic of Ireland in Germany, also on Tuesday night, while others in action earlier in the week included Jozy Altidore who scored for the USA as they drew 1-1 with Honduras in Florida and Steven Fletcher who played 71 minutes as Scotland drew 2-2 with Poland.

Sebastian Larsson was with Sweden as they travelled to Montenegro last night, goalkeeper Cotsel Pantilimon was an unused sub in Romania’s two games along with Saints defender Florin Gardos while Charias Marvas was away with Greece but also warmed the bench.