Puel sees pros and cons of international break for Saints

Southampton manager Claude Puel has mixed feelings ahead of another international break after this Sunday’s match against Hull.

While the gap in the Premier League schedule will give time for the likes of Shane Long and Matt Targett to recover from injuries, others will be jetting off around the globe.

And while the risk of injury whilst players are on international duty is a constant source of concern for Puel, he’s optimistic some players will edge closer to full fitness.

“I hope so,” he said. “We will see this, for example, with [Cédric] Soares.

“Perhaps he comes back the next week for the training sessions and after, for other players, we will see this.

“The international break is always difficult, because we are going to have many players selected for international games and they cannot recover.

(Photo by Ian Walton/Getty Images)

“But it’s a good thing also, because the squad is good, with good players and international players, and for the future this will be important.”

After a thrilling 2-1 victory over Inter in the Europa League, Puel is not expecting to make many changes to the team when they travel to the KCOM Stadium on Sunday.

“I don’t think we will see the squad change for this week, because all the injured players are still unavailable, like Long, Targett, (Jake) Hesketh and (Jeremy) Pied,” he added. “We don’t change the squad.”