Ryan Bertrand is in contention to start against Swansea on Saturday after making his first appearance of the season as Saints hammered MK Dons.

The England left back has missed the first part of the campaign through injury, but returned to figure for the under-21s on Monday before coming off the bench early in the second half in the 6-0 victory over the Dons.

Bertrand looked sharp and fit in his cameo at stadiummk and Ronald Koeman will assess his fitness over the next couple of days before making a final decision on whether he will start at St Mary’s at the weekend.

“Very pleased,” said Koeman of Bertrand’s comeback. “It’s a very good player.

“I think Matthew (Targett) did a great job in all the games when he played for a young player, but Ryan what he showed last year and he’s close to be back.

“He played last Monday 45 minutes in the under-21s and now 30-35 minutes again.

“Little by little he will be close to his best physical level.

“You have to understand that he missed the whole pre-season, it’s always difficult, and he needs game time to be back to what he was.”

Asked whether he is now ready to start on Saturday, Koeman replied: “I don’t know. We have time enough to think about it.

“Today was more important than Saturday and from tomorrow we will prepare the way we like to do for the game on Saturday.”

That will be far from Koeman’s only dilemma for the weekend.

His decision to make a number of changes to give his squad further game time has given him something of a selection headache after they produced a stunning display to thrash MK Dons.

“Always you have to take your analysis of every game, and also sessions during the week,” said Koeman.

“I said before that we have more competition in our squad than we had last year and the front players showed and also the midfielders that we don’t have 11 players, we have more than 20 players, and it’s always our job to put the best 11 to start the game.

“We make some changes in the team but the level was still very high.”