George Burley hopes finally to have his injury-ravaged squad back together for a renewed promotion push at the start of next month.

The Saints boss has been hit by injury after injury with things particularly bad in midfield, where he currently has FIVE first teamers - Rudi Skacel (achilles), Andrew Surman (knee), Djamel Belmadi (knee), Nathan Dyer (ankle) and Inigo Idiakez (thigh) - all out.

But there is light at the end of the tunnel with Burley hoping they will all be back for the crucial run-in to the season, starting in a few weeks, which will make or break Saints' dream of a return to the Premiership.

The first one likely to be back is Rudi Skacel and Burley said: "He is still not training yet but it's settling down and touch and go for Saturday.

"At the moment, the odds are against him, because he's not trained yet, but he's a big miss.

"You are talking about the more creative midfield players all being injured and it has hampered us a bit - as last Satutrday showed.

"There's nothing you can do about it - you can cope with one or two but four of your best playmakers all out - to handle that is a big ask for any squad.

Full story in today's Daily Echo