BOSS Ralph Hasenhuttl is hopeful Saints skipper James Ward-Prowse will be available for selection against Burnley on Sunday, as he looks to recover from a calf problem.

The England midfielder was left out of his national side’s victory over Poland in midweek and returned early to Saints as a “fitness precaution”.

And the Austrian boss revealed his captain has not yet trained after a sustaining the issue but could still be an option to face up against the Clarets.

“Prowsey had a little bit of problems with his calf, so he missed the third (England) game, and he is still not training,” said Hasenhuttl.

“Also today we rest him, but hopefully tomorrow he is so far so good and he can train with the team and be an option for the weekend.”

Ward-Prowse has not missed a moment of competitive action for Hasenhuttl’s men this season, having chalked up more than 3,000 minutes of match action.

He has played 38 times in all competitions for club and country already this campaign, scoring on nine occasions.

The set-piece specialist was also ever present in Saints’ 2019-20 Premier League campaign.

Saints are however boosted by the returns of Danny Ings and Theo Walcott for the clash against Sean Dyche’s side, the pair having been back in training.

“These guys are training now with the team for more than one week,” said the manager.

“They are on a good way back, we can feel that there are more and more players coming back, so this is good news.

“Especially the last two weeks we had a very good time with the guys that have stayed here, a few good sessions, and most of them did a good job. I was happy with the attitude and the workload.”

Burnley go into the contest having beaten Everton 2-1 before the international break.

Speaking about this weekend’s opposition, Hasenhuttl said: “I think this team is one of the teams you have to have a good performance if you want to win against them and they are always good, always organised. Always strong. Every team is struggling against them.

“They had some good results this season. We know about their good automatism, also they have good development in the team playing a very straight football and I am a fan from what they are doing with the options they have in the club.

“They took the maximum out of it and so praise for them and for the manager.”