Southampton FC: New David Brooks and Bednarek update emerges | OneFootball

Russell Martin addressed the media before Friday's game against Middlesbrough, and he gave an update on the fitness of internationals David Brooks and Jan Bednarek.

Southampton still have a chance to claw their way back into the automatic promotion fight. One thing is for sure, regardless of whether they catch up to the top three by the end of the season, they will have a massive impact on who finishes first and second in the Championship.

The Saints still have Leeds United, Leicester City, and Ipswich Town to play in their final 10 games.

They're eight points behind Ipswich in third, with two games in hand on the Tractor Boys, who, themselves, are only a point off the top two.

Managers across the league have had to deal with the tension of watching their players play over the final international break of the campaign. Some will have been watching from behind the couch, hoping that nobody gets hurt while playing for their country, therefore impacting on their club side's run-in.

Two Saints teammates - David Brooks and Jan Bednarek - faced each other in the final European Championship qualification play-off. Bednarek's Polish side were able to topple Brooks and his Welsh teammates to qualify for Euro 2024, in Germany, on penalties.

Both players had questions over their availability upon returning to St Mary's, and the manager has revealed whether they are likely to feature against Boro.

David Brooks and Jan Bednarek fitness update from Russell Martin

Martin said that both the central defender and the loanee will be available for the fixture on Good Friday. He added: "Janny [Bednarek] took a kick in the first game and managed to get through Wales as long as he could. They both weren't feeling well either, they have been assessed and are both available and involved."

The Polish defender played the full 90 minutes against Estonia in his country's 5-0 cruise of a victory over Estonia, last Thursday. He was a rock at the back in that game, completing 96% of his passes, and winning eight of his 10 duels, as per Sofascore. He then played eighty minutes of the game in Cardiff before being replaced by Bartosz Salamon.

The winger on loan from Bournemouth, who has been excellent since making the switch to Southampton in January, providing two goals and three assists in eight appearances, started Wales' first match of the break against Finland, and he continued his good form. He opened the scoring in the third minute of the contest, and set up Tottenham Hotspur's Brennan Johnson's goal minutes into the second half.

Brooks only featured from the bench in the qualification play-off final. He replaced Leeds' Connor Roberts with around 15 minutes to go in the game, but was taken off with less than 10 minutes to go in extra time for Ipswich's Nathan Broadhead.

Southampton could cause a big promotion upset

Martin's team have fallen off the pace in the race for automatic promotion to the Premier League. They went on a very impressive run between the 30th September and the 13th February where they went 22 games unbeaten, and they won all their FA Cup matches over that period too.

But the knack of the best teams is being able to peak at the right times, and Southampton look to have gone too early. They have lost half of their last four league games since the defeat to Bristol City that ended their run.

The power is still in their hands though.

They have the ability to firmly entrench themselves in that hunt for the top two spots, once again, because of the fixtures that they have left. Beating the top three teams in the second tier is easier said than done, but Southampton have the ability to throw this promotion race right off course.