Mark Hughes is pleased to have the latest international break out of the way, but was still able to reflect on some valuable work with his players in preparation for the visit to Bournemouth.
Saints had a host of first-team squad members away on duty with their respective countries, but there was also a decent number who remained at Staplewood, with the coaching staff getting some additional work into them.
"I think everyone is pleased to be back and refocusing on what we have to do in the Premier League, rather than international football, and we're ready to go," said Hughes.
mark hughes
it seems that, touch wood, everyone has come through unscathed.
on players returning from internationals
"We did some decent work with the guys that were left behind. We had a group of about 11 or 12 senior players, and we did some good quality work with them.
"Now, we've been able to introduce the guys who have been away and come back at different times, to give them an introduction to what we were doing while they were away, so overall it's been a productive week.
"Sometimes you're a little bit frustrated you can't really do anything productive in relation to the games that you've got ahead, but that wasn't the case this time."
The bonus for Hughes was that all of his players who were away appeared to return without having suffered any ill-effects.
"It seems, touch wood, that everybody has come through unscathed, so that's a real positive," he said.
"The last two to come back were Mario and Maya, who came back on Wednesday night, came in Thursday morning and trained lightly just to keep them ticking over and make sure they're ok, and everybody else was training fully."
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