Russell Martin is currently having to make do without five of his Southampton stars in training as they represent their respective national sides.
It would have been more but Tyler Dibling withdrew from England under-19 duty and Will Smallbone has been sidelined since representing Ireland in the last international break.
Ben Brereton Diaz and Lesley Ugochukwu both found themselves left out of the Chile and France under-21 squads respectively after being involved last time round.
That means the only players Russell Martin is without as he prepares Southampton to take on Leicester City next weekend are Jan Bednarek, Yukinari Sugawara, Taylor Harwood-Bellis, Mateus Fernandes and Sam Amo-Ameyaw.
- READ MORE: Every Southampton player on international duty during October break including who and when they play
Bednarek is the most experienced of those on the international stage and earned his 63rd cap as Poland lost 3-1 to Portugal in the UEFA Nations League on Saturday.
Southampton ace Jan Bednarek criticised for Poland display
Bednarek started the clash up against a 39-year-old Cristiano Ronaldo and played the full 90 minutes of the defeat.
Ronaldo was on target after Bernardo Silva had opened the scoring on 26 minutes.
Piotr Zieliński pulled one back for Poland on 78 minutes before a Bednarek own goal secured a 3-1 win for Portugal two minutes from full-time.
An unfortunate night for Bednarek, the defender was criticised by Polish media for his display, with Wezlo scoring his performance an incredibly harsh two out of ten and commenting: “Another match against a strong team and Bednarek was lost in the action.
“His mistake could have resulted in a goal at the very beginning, but the opponents hit the crossbar.
“For the first goal – a compromising attitude. He could have behaved better with the second one, too. In the second half, he kicked the ball so much that it seemed that he could score his own goal. And finally he put the ball into his own goal in the last minutes of the match.
“On the plus side – basically only the good behaviour at the end, when Diogo Jota was running towards our goal and managed to prevent him.”
Bednarek’s Poland performance won’t help confidence ahead of Southampton return
One thing Southampton could certainly do without is any of their players losing any more confidence, but comments like those from Wezlo will not help Bednarek.
The 28-year-old has arguably been Southampton’s best centre-back this season in a defence that has struggled with the step up to the Premier League, conceding 15 goals in seven matches.
Against Leicester next time out Martin will need Bednarek to be at his best as Southampton continue to search for a first league win of what has been a dismal start to the season.
Martin will hope Bednarek can restore some confidence as Poland face Croatia before returning to Staplewood to prepare for a crunch clash at St Mary’s on Saturday.