SAINTS youngster Diamond Edwards has been ruled out for up to the remainder of the season with an ACL injury picked up last month.

The 19-year-old attacker was on course for a breakout season with the under-21s side after being included in the senior squad for Ralph Hasenhuttl’s pre-season tour of Austria.

Edwards was given his senior Saints debut as a late substitute by the boss during the 3-0 win over Cambridge United in the EFL Cup, in which teammate Dom Ballard scored.

Edwards had caught the eye of top coaches during an impressive campaign for the title-winning under-18s last season, despite only just returning from another lengthy layoff.

However, he has taken a lengthy setback and is now likely to miss the rest of the season with an injury picked up during a match with Leeds United at Elland Road.

“Unfortunately, we’ve lost Diamond for the season,” Horseman explained, speaking after the 5-2 defeat at Portsmouth in the Hampshire Senior Cup.

“He’s done his ACL away at Leeds. We’ve been a bit unlucky. What you're seeing here what it does do, every negative has a positive. It means little Sam (Amo-Ameyaw), who I think we can all see the insights team have done a magnificent job getting him in.

“So there is turnover, but there should be turnover. That should be the under-21s - that's our job is to get them up into the first team and out on loan and then move on to the next lot,” he continued.

“So we always go after it as a team, but it's not. There are 11 players on 11 different journeys there and we have to manage it. That's the uniqueness of an under-21s team.”

Horseman was also not helped by a succession of knocks, injury and illness to his backline. It meant naming only attacking players and a spare goalkeeper on the bench, while Brandon Charles limped off minutes after coming on.

“We've lost a couple through injury for maybe quite a while,” Horseman admitted, not specifying what players he means.

“We lost one yesterday (Monday) unfortunately where we were training set-plays and he had his foot stood on. We’re hoping it’s not a break.

“At the moment we’re thinking that it’s maybe a bone bruise but he’s a really talented young player who would have played tonight. We lost one through Covid-19 today (Tuesday).”

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