BRETT ORMEROD's Saints debut has been put on hold. The £1.75million striker was expected to line up for the reserves at Charlton tonight, but manager Gordon Strachan has opted to keep the former Blackpool marksman training with the first team squad.

It means that Ormerod, a substitute at Leicester last Saturday, is likely to figure again on the bench for Saturday's game against Sunderland at St Mary's.

Reserve team boss Steve Wigley takes a relatively youthful squad with him to The Valley, with Francis Benali the most senior of the squad.

One player also not figuring tonight is Ecuadorian skipper, Kleber Chala, who has so far featured in two reserve games, a behind-closed-doors friendly against Charlton and an FA Premier Reserve League clash with Derby.

The Spanish-speaking midfielder has a slight ankle problem, and manager Gordon Strachan admitted that the language barrier still remains a problem.

He said: "His English is not good. He has missed two team meetings so far and at this moment in time he has great difficulty understanding the simplest of things. He cannot be included until he knows what we are doing. Even the terminology in football, he doesn't know that." Both Chala and his Ecuadorian teammate, Agustin Delgado, are taking regular English classes.

Delgado is recovering from a knee operation, but the £3.2m signing is unlikely to make his debut until after the New Year. He had hoped to be fit to face Manchester United at Old Trafford in ten days' time but physio Jim Joyce said: "It was only a month ago that he had the operation. We said at the time that he would be out for a minimum of six weeks before he was back in training. He is making good progress and is perhaps slightly ahead of what we expected and he should be back in training in the next couple of weeks.

"The problem is that he was carrying the injury for five or six weeks before he had surgery and he has to build up the wasted muscle before he can safely go back into training."

Joyce added that Ecuador's national team doctor would be arriving in Southampton next week to check over Delgado and help with the programme for the final stages of recovery. The Saints physio added: "It is twice as hard for him going through rehabilitation because he cannot speak the language and understand what is being asked of him. It has been hard to explain some of the technical terms."

SAINTS: Baird, Bevan, Gray, Bleidelis, Howard, McDonald, Williamson, Wallace, Benali, Monk, Jacinto, Ashford, Rodrigues, Trueman, Caceres, McManus.