SAINTS are optimistic top scorer Peter Crouch WILL be fit for Saturday's crunch relegation clash with Norwich.

The 14-goal hitman was forced to withdraw from the Saints team to play Portsmouth at Fratton Park last Sunday just minutes before the match after feeling a tightening of his hamstring during the warm-up.

Crouch, who first felt the problem in training the day before the game, was not played as a precaution to make sure the injury did not get any worse.

The former Pompey striker's place was filled by Henri Camara, who scored Saints' goal in the miserable 4-1 defeat that kept them rock bottom of the Premiership with just 270 minutes of the season remaining.

Saints boss Harry Redknapp will be desperate to have Crouch back for the match against the Canaries - with whom the 6ft 7in striker spent a successful loan spell in the Championship last season - and it looks as though he will get his wish.

Initial tests have indicated that Crouch's injury is just a tightening of the hamstring rather than a pull or tear - either of which would have required a spell on the sidelines.

Saints will wait on the results of a scan before deciding on when Crouch, who has bagged 11 goals in his last 17 league and cup appearances, can resume training.

But if he gets the all clear then he will surely figure against an in-form Norwich team who have taken a third of their total points of the season in their last four matches.

Graeme Le Saux, who like Crouch missed the Pompey debacle through injury, should have recovered from an Achilles problem while Neil McCann will also be available.

But the recalled Jason Dodd, who came back from a loan spell at Plymouth last week, was forced to sit out the Pompey match with a minor groin strain suffered in training last Friday.

And the veteran defender, who played at Norwich last November when Saints lost 2-1, is already a doubt for Saturday.

The former skipper remains stranded on 399 league appearances for Saints, therefore.

Saints will he hoping Chelsea fail to get the win they need to clinch the Premiership title at Bolton on Saturday - meaning Arsenal still have all to play for at West Brom on Monday night!

Arsenal, still minus the injured Thierry Henry and Freddie Ljungberg, defeated Spurs 1-0 last night to keep alive their slim hopes of retaining their crown.