Russell Martin reveals Southampton are nearing fully fit squad

Only Kamaldeen Sulemana remains unavailable with Scottish forward Ross Stewart given his latest clean bill of health.

Forward Ben Brereton Diaz was subbed after 35 minutes during Chile's 2-1 defeat to Bolivia on Tuesday evening - but Martin insisted that decision was not injury-related.

Deadline day arrivals Maxwel Cornet and Ryan Fraser are also available for the first team having missed the trip to Brentford.

Speaking on Thursday, Martin explained: "Maxwel's in the squad. Everyone is pretty much fit now apart from Kamaldeen.

Kamaldeen Sulemana missed out on a deadline day loan move to Ajax (Image: Southampton FC / Matt Watson)
"Kamaldeen is very, very close to being fit. We have a big squad. It's going to be a lot of selection dilemmas to get into the squad, let alone the starting XI.

"(We have to overcome that) by making sure the door is always open for them and that they train well with the team.

"We will try and adapt and be flexible with the training to make sure we can account for all the numbers.

"But there will be days where they'll be very frustrated and we have to just train with the squad. Otherwise, it's just too many."

On Brereton Diaz, Martin added: "He's fine. It's not an injury, so I guess the coach has his own reasons, but it's not my job to ring the Chile coach and find out why Ben comes off."