Hasenhuttl Confirms Obafemi Blow

Ralph Hasenhuttl has confirmed Michael Obafemi suffered a recurrence of his hamstring injury during Southampton’s 2-0 loss at Arsenal.

The Saints were up against it after goals from Alexandre Lacazette and Henrikh Mkhitaryan put Arsenal in control of proceedings after just 17 minutes at the Emirates Stadium.

Hasenhuttl had started the match without a recognised striker, but he threw on Obafemi and Charlie Austin at the half-time break to try and get Southampton back into the game.

Republic of Ireland international Obafemi was making his first appearance since injuring his hamstring against Huddersfield before Christmas and he seemingly suffered a recurrence of that problem just 20 minutes after coming on and he was subsequently replaced by Mohamed Elyounoussi.

Hassenhuttl confirmed after the match that Obafemi had indeed suffered another hamstring injury and he believes Southampton will have look at how they treat the teenager going forward, as it appears to be his posture that is causing the problems.

“I wanted to give Michael Obafemi a chance to play again because he was fit again,” Hasenhuttl told reporters. “It is very disappointing that he is again injured.

“It was his first 20 minutes after a long long break. It seems again that it is a hamstring problem that he has. “It is a problem he knows he has with his body because of his body shape and the posture is a very stiff one. We must change the treatment for the future because in this situation we see it doesn’t work what we try to do with him.”