MANAGER Ralph Hasenhuttl confirmed summer signing Mohammed Salisu would be “longer out” as his wait for a Saints debut continues.

The Ghanaian centre-back arrived at St Mary’s from Real Valladolid for £10.9million last August.

Having recently gotten up to speed as part of Saints’ squad, the 21-year-old had been an unused substitute in the Premier League on six separate occasions.

But having now picked up a muscle injury, Hasenhuttl does not expect the defender to be back any time soon.

The Austrian is already without Danny Ings, Jannik Vestergaard, Oriol Romeu, Nathan Redmond and Moussa Djenepo for tomorrow’s FA Cup third-round home clash against Shrewsbury (8pm).

Asked about time-frames on his injured stars, Hasenhuttl said: “The earliest return will be Ingsy, then Moussa maybe, with Ori and Reddy also in this group.

“Then maybe Jannik, but that can be in February, and Salisu is still longer out with a muscle injury.”

He added: “We have some problems at the moment with muscle injuries and there are some reasons I think that are responsible for this.

“We are in a fantastic building here but we cannot use anything (due to COVID-19). We cannot use our cryo chamber, the sauna, the pool, nothing, and we have still the same games with the same intensity.

“We are also limited in eating here together, so everything is not what we normally do in professional football, and there are reasons why we do it normally, so it’s not so surprising in some moments you have more injuries.

“It will be a mixed group (against Shrewsbury). Some guys who have to play, because there are not a lot of alternatives, and some young guys will have to step in and show what they have shown in the sessions - that they are developing their game and deserve to get a chance to play.”