Saints are hoping club record signing Sofiane Boufal will make a significant first team impact in the coming weeks - before he has to leave the club for up to a month.

The £16m signing has been unable to play for Saints since joining in August as he recovered from the knee injury that has seen him sidelined since the end of April.

Boufal has returned to first team training with Saints during this international break, as was scheduled following his move from Lille.

Claude Puel is now aiming to have the creative talent ready to go by the time Saints start another packed run of fixtures by welcoming Burnley to St Mary’s a week on Sunday.

Though Puel will be cautious to try and ease Boufal in gently, there is little doubt he will get time to impress.

Saints are heading into seven games in the space of just 22 days, which includes two Europa League games against Inter Milan and a League Cup tie at Sunderland, as well as Premier fixtures against Burnley, Manchester City, Chelsea and Hull.

Puel’s squad is sure to be stretched to the limit again to try and cope with the demand of so many matches before another international break in November.

However, Saints may not get quite as much from Boufal as they would ideally like with the 22-year-old almost certain to be included in Morocco’s squad for the upcoming Africa Cup of Nations if he is fit.

After that run of games at Saints, Boufal is likely to be whisked away for international duty as Morocco face Ivory Coast and Togo, before returning for another hectic period in December and then heading to the Africa Cup of Nations, which begins in January.

The tournament, which is taking place in Gabon, kicks-off on January 14 with the final on February 5. There is also likely to be a pre-tournament training camp.

Though Saints were clearly aware that Boufal would be leaving them in January when they signed him, it is still likely to be a slight frustration as he should be in peak fitness and form again by then, and will be gone for a significant period of time.

For now though Puel’s focus will be integrating him into the Saints squad, and eventually the line-up.

Puel is assessing where he wants to play Boufal, with a couple of options open to him.

He could play Boufal in the number ten role at the top of the diamond midfield, which would give a bit of breathing space to Dusan Tadic, who has featured heavily in the vast majority of games this season while others around him have got some rest.

Or Boufal could be used as a striker in the same way that Puel has done with Nathan Redmond.