Southampton have some injury problems ahead of their meeting with Wrexham this weekend.
The Red Dragons’ 2025 pre-season ended in disappointment with two defeats to Groningen in the Netherlands on Saturday.
Attention has swiftly turned toward the league campaign, with Wrexham predicted to struggle in the Championship.
It comes despite the club making some big signings this summer, including Josh Windass and Conor Coady.
Wrexham have very difficult fixtures to kick off their campaign in the second tier, the first of which comes against Southampton.
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Southampton injury update ahead of Wrexham
Wrexham’s summer spending has been impressive, while Southampton have signed a few top players as well.
The Saints were plying their trade in the Premier League last season and are expected to be a real test for the Dragons.
But they do have some injury issues to deal with going into Saturday’s clash, as Will Still has confirmed.
As per the Daily Echo, the manager has said Taylor Harwood-Bellis, who set Southampton back £20m as per BBC Sport, is expected to be sidelined for 10 days, so he will miss out against Wrexham.
Still said: “I think Taylor (Harwood-Bellis) has probably got another 10 days to go. He’s only just joined in training in the latter stages of this week.
Meanwhile, Flynn Downes ‘hasn’t trained’, while Will Smallbone and Ben Brereton Diaz also have problems.
Still added: “Flynn hasn’t trained with us yet, so we’ll try and work it out. But like I said, we’ve got a few young players in there that did well today.
“Will Smallbone is still struggling with his arm, which he struggled with last week as well, which is why he didn’t play last week or today.
“Bez (Brereton Diaz) has locked his hips. He’s got sore groins and sore hips. We don’t want to force people into playing or anything.”
Wrexham player out of Southampton fixture
Wrexham have injury problems of their own going into their 2025/26 Championship opener.
Ollie Rathbone suffered a blow in pre-season and won’t be fit in time to face Southampton.
Phil Parkinson has confirmed Jay Rodriguez remains sidelined as well, saying last week: “Jay, really feel for him. He was playing with an injury towards the end the last few games of the [202425] season, and he came back in the pre-season, and it was still concerning him.
“We’ve subsequently found he’s got a stress fracture, so he’s in a boot for a couple of weeks, then we’re going to assess that after that.”
Elsewhere, Andy Cannon is a long-term absentee and has stepped up his return to action in recent weeks.