Those are cur­rent­ly occu­pied by Leeds Unit­ed (82 points) and Leices­ter City (82). Ipswich Town (81) sit just behind head­ing into their last eight games.

In terms of points (73), Saints remain some way off the top two, how­ev­er, they pos­sess two games in hand and must vis­it all three teams above them before the cam­paign ends.

Here we take a look at how Southamp­ton’s injury list looks com­pared to those teams above them…

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Southamp­ton

Kyle Walk­er-Peters

The full-back has missed Southamp­ton’s last two games hav­ing been forced off against Liv­er­pool in the FA Cup back in Feb­ru­ary.

Kyle Walk­er-Peters is expect­ed to return to fit­ness by the time Saints host Mid­dles­bor­ough on March 29 hav­ing been pic­tured back in train­ing.

Hap­py to be back, @KWPeters? 😍 pic.twitter.com/ziVsFJZ9FK

— Southamp­ton FC (@SouthamptonFC) March 19, 2024

Ryan Fras­er

Much like Walk­er-Peters, Ryan Fras­er is tar­get­ing a return just after the inter­na­tion­al break. The Scot has been out since suf­fer­ing an injury against Mill­wall.

Fras­er has become a fan favourite since join­ing on loan but will have to wres­tle his start­ing spot back from David Brooks, who has pro­vid­ed 10 goal involve­ments in his last 10 games. 

Ross Stew­art

Sum­mer sign­ing Ross Stew­art’s first sea­son on the south coast has been plagued by injuries and he looks unlike­ly to return before the cam­paign’s close.

The for­mer Sun­der­land for­ward has man­aged just two sub­sti­tute appear­ances with a ham­string injury end­ing his hopes of mak­ing a splash this sea­son.

Juan Lar­ios

Young­ster Juan Lar­ios is anoth­er whose time at Saints has been ham­pered by injury. The Span­ish full­back­’s last appear­ance came all the way back in Novem­ber 2022 against New­cas­tle.

The 20 year old has been pic­tured in train­ing but also remains a doubt for the rest of this sea­son giv­en the length of his injury.

Step-by-step 📈

💪 @juan_larios7 pic.twitter.com/5V344AUDlh

— Southamp­ton FC (@SouthamptonFC) March 16, 2024

Lar­ios told club media: “I need to go step by step. It’s going to be a slow process to build up nice and slow. I just need to take it day to day and hope every­thing goes well.”

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Leeds Unit­ed

Jamie Shack­le­ton

The ver­sa­tile Jamie Shack­le­ton has suf­fered sev­er­al injury blows this sea­son, the most recent being a con­cus­sion that ruled him out of their last three games.

The 24 year old has man­aged just nine league appear­ances for the Cham­pi­onship lead­ers this sea­son.

Pas­cal Stru­ijk

Dutch defend­er Pas­cal Stru­ijk scored at St Mary’s when Southamp­ton ran out 3–1 win­ners against Daniel Farke’s side ear­li­er this sea­son.

He has been out since Decem­ber with a groin strain, although that has not hin­dered the Leeds defence, who have con­ced­ed just four goals in his absence.

Kyle Walk­er-Peters (left) and Pas­cal Stru­ijk (right) have both missed games through injury in recent weeks (Image: PA)

Stu­art Dal­las

Stu­art Dal­las has gone under the knife sev­er­al times over the last two years, after frac­tur­ing his femur, but still remains a way off from return­ing to full fit­ness.

North­ern Ire­land boss Michael O’Neill expressed his con­cern for Dal­las’ future as a return date remains unclear.

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Leices­ter City

Ricar­do Pereira

Fox­es skip­per Ricar­do Pereira has been out since sus­tain­ing a ham­string injury dur­ing train­ing ahead of their defeat to QPR ear­li­er this month.

Boss Enzo Maresca indi­cat­ed that the injury would rule the Por­tuguese full-back out until after the inter­na­tion­al break.

Den­nis Praet

Bel­gian mid­field­er Den­nis Praet is anoth­er Leices­ter play­er who suf­fered an injury ear­li­er this month.

He hob­bled off in that defeat to QPR while clutch­ing his ham­string and is expect­ed to remain out for a while longer after Maresca esti­mat­ed he would be out for “three to four weeks.”

Den­nis Praet has only made 14 appear­ances for Leices­ter this sea­son (Image: PA)

Kasey McA­teer

Kasey McA­teer, 22, was on the score­sheet at St Mary’s ear­li­er this sea­son when Leices­ter inflict­ed a gut­ting defeat on Mar­t­in’s men.

His lat­est injury forced him to miss out on a first call-up for Ire­land but could see him return before Saints head to the King Pow­er Sta­di­um, bar­ring any fur­ther set­backs. 

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Ipswich Town

Wes Burns

Key Ipswich attack­er Wes Burns was forced to with­draw from the Wales squad this month through injury.

The 29 year old, who has hit five goals and pro­vid­ed three assists this sea­son, suf­fered a ham­string injury last time out as the Trac­tor Boys thrashed Sheffield Wednes­day 6–0.

Ipswich boss Kier­an McKen­na told EATD: “It does­n’t look great. It’s a ham­string and it does­n’t look like a minor one. I don’t think it feels like a minor one.”

Wes Burns was forced to miss Wales’ Euro 2024 play­off cam­paign (Image: PA)

Bran­don Williams

On loan left-back Bran­don Williams has not fea­tured in the Cham­pi­onship dur­ing 2024 hav­ing returned to Man­ches­ter Unit­ed for treat­ment.

Williams will like­ly find it dif­fi­cult to earn a start­ing spot ahead of Leif Davis, who has pro­vid­ed the sec­ond most assists in the Cham­pi­onship this sea­son (14).

Conor Chap­lin

For­mer Pom­pey man Conor Chap­lin missed the squad for Ipswich’s last game — mark­ing the first time he was not involved in a match­day squad this sea­son.

Speak­ing after their win, McKen­na said: “Conor has a strain in his side/back. He wasn’t avail­able for this game, so we’ll have to see how he recov­ers from it.”

Conor Chap­lin has 20 goal con­tri­bu­tions for Ipswich Town this sea­son (Image: PA)

George Hirst

Strik­er George Hirst is pro­gress­ing in his recov­ery after under­go­ing ham­string surgery in Jan­u­ary and could play again this sea­son.

McKen­na is hope­ful that the 25 year old can get fit in time for their last game of the sea­son against Hud­der­s­field. 

Janoi Dona­cien

The lat­est injury news is less pos­i­tive for 30 year old Janoi Dona­cien. The Saint Lucia inter­na­tion­al has man­aged just three league appear­ances since help­ing his side to pro­mo­tion last sea­son.