Manolo Gabbiadini is on standby to make his first Premier League start of the season.

The Italian striker has found his chances limited in the early weeks of the campaign and hasn’t even made the bench for Saints’ last two top flight games.

However, injury doubts over both Charlie Austin and Shane Long have him on red alert to come into the side to partner Danny Ings for Monday night’s Premier League clash with Brighton at St Mary’s.

“What we’ve got is good variation,” said Saints boss Mark Hughes of his striking options.

“I am happy with the different qualities each of them brings to the party.

“I won’t sit here and tell you ‘that’s my number one pairing’ or ‘that’s the way we go with just one’. I have variations in terms of what I can do given the opposition we are facing.

“We have got a little bit of a concern with Shane and Charlie actually leading into the game because they haven’t trained this week.

“We are hoping we are going to get them back for Saturday or Sunday and that would give us the options that we want but at the moment they are not back training with the group.

“We have to wait and hope we get them back.”

Austin has a problem with his hamstring while Long was forced off during the win over Crystal Palace with an injury to his toe.

Ings has also had a problem recently, but Hughes is confident that has resolved.

“Danny just had a really bad blister,” he reported.

“He wore studded boots against Everton and tore a big chunk of skin and loads of layers of skin came away at one time and so it was really tender.

“He’s had to have pain killers and blocks to stop the pain.

“He’s not having those jabs now and is just getting it padded up.

“The break has helped him so we don’t anticipate he will have any problems from this point onwards.

“It’s still a little bit tender but he’s trained the last couple of days without any pain relief or block in the injury and he’s come through it so we don’t anticipate he will be an issue.”

For Gabbiadini any chance would be a welcome one.

He did get a start in the Carabao Cup tie at Brighton but couldn’t register a goal, meaning he has scored just twice in 2018 thus far.