Mario Lemina has been ruled out of Saints’ trip to Liverpool.

The combative midfielder has missed the last two games with an ankle injury and the club were hoping the international break would have given him sufficient time to recover to be able to play at Anfield.

However, though Lemina has returned to training he won’t be quite ready for Liverpool.

Saints boss Mauricio Pellegrino said: “Mario Lemina was training well, much better than before, but I think will not be ready to play Saturday.

“We think about his problem a few weeks ago and he has improved a lot but still already it is too soon to put him again on the pitch.”