Jose Fonte admits that he wants to continue his partnership at the heart of the Saints defence with loanee Toby Alderweireld but accepts that the Belgium international’s future is out of his hands.

The 31-year-old skipper has played with Alderweireld at centre back for much of the season, helping Saints in the process to 14 clean-sheets already this term.

Alderweireld has been exceptional for Ronald Koeman’s side but, with his temporary deal up at the end of the season, he could return to parent club Atletico Madrid if Saints can’t negotiate terms.

A deal seems to be becoming increasingly tricky to be done.

Saints possess an option to purchase him for £6.8m, but the Spanish club can effectively buy that back for £1.5m.

“It would be nice to keep Toby because he’s a great player,” said Fonte. “He’s been doing really well.

“But that’s not something I can control and even the club can’t even control because Atletico have all the cards.

“We’ll see what happens, but we have to wait and see.”

Meanwhile, the captain is backing striker Graziano Pelle, who is without a Premier League goal since late December, to getting back to firing on all cylinders as Saints look to land a European place.

“These spells happen to strikers, you see Aguero (Manchester City’s Sergio Aguero) as well, he’s has been five or six games without scoring.

“Everyone is talking about it, but that’s what happens to every striker.

“But obviously, he knows he has our support, we all want him to score.

“He just needs to keep doing what he’s doing, working hard for the team and try and be in the right place at the right time.

“Keep taking shots, only if you shoot you can score, but there’s 100% backing from the team [for Graziano].”

Fonte, who will make his 200th league appearance for Saints today against Hull City, played his first competitive game for Portugal against Serbia in a European championships qualifier recently.

In turn he got the better of fellow Saints stars Dusan Tadic and Filip Djuricic.

It was a subject of pride for Fonte.

“It’s another stepping stone, another moment to be proud of because it’s my second appearance for Portugal,” he said.

“It was the first competitive game I’ve played, so it’s a good experience and I hope there’s more to come.”