Southampton have been dealt a huge blow with Charlie Austin set to miss the next three to four mouths with a dislocated shoulder, reports The Guardian.
Austin will require surgery after suffering a nasty shoulder injury during Southampton’s 1-1 draw with Hapoel Beer Sheva last Thursday.
The Southampton ace previously dislocated the same shoulder three times in 14 months during his time at Burnley and has already had two shoulder operations in the past, with this latest one set to leave him sidelined for up to four months.
Despite having an abundance of talent in advanced areas, Southampton aren’t blessed with too many out-and-out strikers. Shane Long is expected to deputise for the foreseeable future but the Ireland international has struggled to make any sort of impact under Claude Puel thus far.
Nathan Redmond started the season up front but has reverted back to his usual wide position of late, while Jay Rodriguez has struggled for form and fitness in the last 18 months following a long injury lay-off.
Only Jermain Defoe (53%) and Romelu Lukaku (47%) have scored more of their teams’ goals than Austin (42.3%) in the Premier League this season.
For more stats on Charlie Austin, click here to visit his WhoScored player page
