CLAUDE Puel has confirmed that Manolo Gabbiadini is out of the Crystal Palace game at St Mary's on Wednesday night.

The Italian striker, who has scored six goals in his first five Saints appearances since a £14.6m January move from Napoli, remains sidelined with a groin injury he picked up at Tottenham just over two weeks ago.

Puel had hoped the 25-year-old would be back for the Palace match, but will now be monitoring him ahead of the visit to West Brom on Saturday.

Along with Saints' long-term absentees, Puel stated that Sofiane Boufal is a doubt for the Eagles clash after picking a muscle injury in training.

"I don’t know if Sofiane Boufal will be available (against Palace) because of something he picked up in training in his muscle," the boss said.

"Gabbiadini is not available for this game, but we will see with the next game against West Bromwich."

He added: "He (Gabbiadini) has started to run but cannot, for the moment, make training sessions with the squad.

"I don't know, we will see this, I hope (he can be back) the next week and if he cannot participate and stay available, we will wait for the next game against Manchester City.

"He is now an important player for us but for now I prefer speaking about Jay or Shane because now they are the important players for us."