MARK Hughes will get a first glimpse of Saints’ £44m trio Mohamed Elyounoussi, Jannik Vestergaard and Angus Gunn in match action tomorrow in the pre-season friendly at Derby County.

The three new recruits have joined Saints in training this week and Hughes, as he continues to shape his side ahead of next season, will want to have a look at the club’s new investments in action for the first time at Pride Park.

Elyounoussi, who joined from Basel in a £16m deal earlier this month, has been with his new team-mates for the past fortnight, having joined them for the final week of a two-week tour of China.

However, the Norway international was still building up to fitness, so wasn’t involved, when Saints defeated Jiangsu Suning 3-2 last Wednesday as they concluded their Far East tour.

Now, though, the 23-year-old has had a good run of training sessions at Staplewood and is now at level where he’s ready to make his debut, potentially alongside fellow newbies Vestergaard and Gunn at County.

Those two linked-up with Hughes’ men this week and so will still be building up their fitness ahead of the Premier League’s big kick-off on August 12 against Burnley at St Mary’s.

Hughes will not want to hold-off integrating towering Dane Vestergaard, an £18m signing from Borussia Monchengladbach, into the defence for too long.

Saints struggled aerially at the back last term, but the 6ft6in 25-year-old adds a huge presence at the back which Hughes will know can be hugely valuable from set pieces at both ends.

Considering centre-back Vestergaard’s preparations are slightly behind his colleagues’, having joined just last week and having been with Denmark at the World Cup, he may well only get 45 minutes at Derby as he looks to build up his fitness.

Gunn, meanwhile, was recruited from Manchester City last week in a £10m deal and has been working with Dave Watson, the club’s head of goalkeeping, at Staplewood with fellow shot stoppers Alex McCarthy, Fraser Forster and Harry Lewis.

The highly-rated goalkeeper, 22, has been brought into compete with first-choice McCarthy and Hughes will no doubt want to run the rule over him against Frank Lampard’s team.

Hughes has nearly got his full squad now, with World Cup trio Maya Yoshida, Cedric Soares and Jan Bednarek now concluding their post-season breaks ahead of linking up with Saints for their trip to France on Monday.