Saints will field a strong team for the visit of Crystal Palace in the FA Cup on Saturday - with Ronald Koeman insisting he has few other options.

The Saints boss reported that Toby Alderweireld, Morgan Schniederlin and Victor Wanyama all face about another fortnight on the sidelines, but with Maya Yoshida and Sadio Mane returning from international duty at a similar time he was hopeful of having a full strength squad in three weeks.

For now, though, he has to stick with what he has as Alan Pardew’s Eagles visit St Mary’s for a place in the last 16.

Koeman said: “If I have to make a decision before the last game in the league then of course the Premier League is the most important but I believe in winning, and that’s the best medicine to keep going.

“I am lucky. I don’t have a lot of numbers of players to think about to make changes.

“Still the players who wasn’t available in the last week are still not available for this weekend.

“That means we have 17 or 18 players and of that 17 or 18 players we have already five or six under-21 players.

“There is no time and no reason to think about making changes and we will put out the strongest team we can put.”

Koeman was also asked about the progress of Jay Rodriguez, whose knee injury has sidelined him since April of last year.

“It’s going well but he’s still not close to the group, and that means that he needs more time,” he said.

Koeman also dismissed reports linking him with a move for his former Feyenoord striker John Guidetti, currently on loan at Celtic.

He also expects Dani Osvaldo to remain out on loan for the remainder of the season amidst rumours Harry Redknapp's QPR could seek to sign him this month.