DAN SEABORNE and Aaron Martin are battling for the right to replace Jose Fonte in the centre of the Saints defence for tomorrow’s game against Brentford.

The Portuguese defender, one of Saints’ key men, will miss the St Mary’s match through suspension.

Fonte picked up his fifth yellow card of the campaign in the FA Cup victory over Cheltenham.

He was due to serve his ban during last week’s trip to Hartlepool but after that was called off due to the adverse weather conditions he now has to watch from the stands this weekend.

That will mean Fonte has a threeweek break before he can return to first team action at Walsall a week tomorrow.

The dilemma for Saints boss Nigel Adkins is who will replace Fonte.

Radhi Jaidi is likely to retain his place in the centre of defence to lend his considerable experience and physical prowess to the line-up.

But then the other place is up for grabs with Martin and Seaborne pushing to be included.

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Former Eastleigh man Martin underlined his progress near the start of the season as he enjoyed three league and one cup start.

In his short run in the side, while Seaborne was out injured, Martin earned rave reviews for his performances.

He marked Kevin Davies out of the game as Saints were narrow 1-0 losers to Bolton in the Carling Cup while he was also in the heart of the defence as his side thumped Bristol Rovers 4-0 in what proved to be Alan Pardew’s last match in charge.

His other two starts were narrow defeats at Swindon and at home to Rochdale, but even in that game he was considered by many to be man-ofthe- match.

Seaborne’s return to fitness coincided with the arrival of Nigel Adkins and he took an instant shine to the former Exeter man.

Seaborne had a run of games to take his total for the season to ten league starts and two cup starts before injury sidelined him.

Martin was on the bench for the Cheltenham game but Seaborne is available again for this weekend.

Adkins is expected to draft back in all his first teamers after giving a few a break against Cheltenham. Kelvin Davis will be back in goal in place of Bartosz Bialkowski, Richard Chaplow is expected to be available again after an achilles problem in the centre of midfield for Oscar Gobern, Lee Holmes is out with Alex Chamberlain ready to return while Guly do Prado faces competition from Lee Barnard for his place.