RALPH Hasenhuttl believes it will be unlikely any of his injured group of first-team players can return in time to face Arsenal on Tuesday.

Saints beat the Gunners 1-0 in the FA Cup this afternoon thanks to a Gabriel own goal, despite missing eight players due to injury.

And Hasenhuttl is not expecting to be able to call on any of those from the start when the two sides go head-to-head at St Mary's again in a few days, this time in the Premier League.

"Not yet. A few are very close to coming back in training but we have only two days, so that is not a lot of training," he said.

"It will be difficult, maybe one or the other is sitting on the bench, but we must have a look. It is tough without training to step in, maybe Arsenal on Tuesday is too early. Villa at the weekend may be a solution."

Asked for an update on Jannik Vestergaard and Mohammed Salisu in particular, Hasenhuttl added: "They are on the way, but it still takes a little bit of time. Jannik may be a little bit earlier than Sali.

"Sali’s muscle injury was a big one, but when Jannik is coming back we have more alternatives.

"At the moment we have two guys doing a fantastic job – Jack (Stephens) and Jan (Bednarek). Since they played with Jack on the left and Jan on the right, it is much better than last season.

"But everybody is defending better at the moment. This is the key of winning."

Nathan Redmond, Oriol Romeu, Moussa Djenepo, Nathan Tella, Will Smallbone and Michael Obafemi are also currently sidelined.