Southampton V Leicester at St. Mary's Stadium: LIVE

Southampton V Leicester - view commentary, squad, and statistics of the game live.Southampton boss Ronald Koeman grateful to Roy Hodgson for resting Ryan BertrandRonald Koeman is happy to make Southampton's players available for England's upcoming friendlies, but was also grateful to Roy Hodgson for resting Ryan Bertrand for Monday's win 3-0 in Lithuania.Bertrand featured in last week's 2-0 defeat of Estonia at Wembley, but amid concerns over him playing on an artificial pitch so soon after serious injury, he was then withdrawn from the England squad at Southampton manager Koeman's request.Rows with clubs over the availability of their players for non-competitive internationals have undermined a succession of England managers, and may again surface for November's friendlies with France and Spain.However, Koeman said that if they do they will not be of his making because he would have no problem with Hodgson calling up Bertrand, or Steven Caulker, Jay Rodriguez and James Ward-Prowse, who are also in contention."Why not? It's a good experience for the players," Koeman said."I'm not against international duties because I think it's a compliment to the players, it's a compliment to the club."Of course it's more difficult because we had 15, 16 players out for 10 days (during the past international football break), but they deserve it, and that means the development of Southampton."I spoke to Ryan (Bertrand), I spoke to Dave (Watson, England and Southampton's goalkeeping coach)."It's important to have Dave also in the English national staff, but Ryan was a long time out from football (through injury), the second match was on the artificial grass, and I asked Dave, 'Can you have a talk to the national coach? Maybe it's better for Ryan to play one time and not to play on the artificial grass'."But it's advice, and I'm happy that (Hodgson) did that advice because it's important for the player to keep his physical (conditioning), and to know that he was a long time out."I appreciate that very much but I understand, it's difficult always., If he does it differently (to my request), I have to respect that, but in the case of Ryan I was very pleased that he didn't play the second match."Southampton will be without Shane Long for the visit of Leicester after the forward injured ankle ligaments while on international duty with the Republic of Ireland.Midfielder Jordy Clasie, however, seems in line for his Barclays Premier League debut, having been sidelined since suffering a hamstring injury in July's Europa League victory over Vitesse Arnhem, although Koeman may not risk him from the start.Koeman's only other absentees are long-term injury victims - goalkeeper Fraser Forster and defender Florin Gardos.Nathan Dyer could return for Leicester after recovering from a knee injury.The on-loan Swansea winger has not played since suffering the injury while scoring the winner in the 3-2 victory against Aston Villa last month, but is now fit again.Boss Claudio Ranieri will assess Riyad Mahrez and Jeff Schlupp after their return from international duty with Algeria and Ghana respectively, but they are expected to feature, while Ranieri has no other injury worries after the international break.Ranieri revealed he could have been Southampton boss before his Greek tragedy.The Leicester manager admitted he held talks with the Saints before they appointed current chief Ronald Koeman last summer.Instead, Ranieri took charge of Greece in July 2014 - just weeks after Koeman took the Saints job - but was sacked four months into the post having lost to the Faroe Islands which left them bottom of their Euro 2016 qualifying group.The Foxes go to St Mary's on Saturday and Ranieri admitted he made a mistake taking the Greece job after speaking to Southampton when the Saints were searching for Mauricio Pochettino's replacement."Yes," he said, when asked if he held talks with the Saints."I was interested, but after that there was also the Greece job - and I made a mistake."It was important that it was the right moment - and it (Southampton) wasn't the right moment for me."This is the right moment at Leicester."

Source: PAR