Eckert hopes to have injured Downes back quickly

Southampton head coach Tonda Eckert hopes midfielder Flynn Downes will recover quickly from an ankle injury suffered in Wednesday's win at Norwich City. The 27-year-old picked up a knock in the early stages at Carrow Road, but briefly played on before being replaced by Caspar Jander on 22 minutes. "He said 'strap me up and I'll play on Saturday'," Eckert said when asked about Downes. "Let's see. I hope it's not too serious. I think it's the outside ligament on the ankle. I'm hoping to have him back quickly. "Medical team is not happy with me, because [Jander's] minutes were capped today and I put him on after 20 minutes. He almost scored towards the end, had cramps. I don't know how he does that." Eckert made four changes to the team that beat Portsmouth on Sunday as Zach Abbott, on loan from Nottingham Forest, made his first start and Kuryu Matsuki, Lewis Dobbin and Sam Edozie also came in. And the German coach was full of praise for his squad after Matsuki's goal sealed their first away win in the league this season . "It's not the first time we have made changes," he said. "It's 46 games in the league and the reality is we need every single [player]. "There's been reasons why we haven't picked up a win on the road so far, so there were a couple of considerations for the game today. "Energy from the start was very good and then we had an early substitution. We made another two substitutions at half-time and that leaves you with only two slots. "It's good to know that you can trust every single one who comes on and every single one who starts because that's the only way for us to go for the ambitions we have this year. A couple of players have stepped up today and that's very important." Latest Southampton news and analysis