Virgil van Dijk is in contention to make his first appearance for Southampton since failing to secure a move away from the club this summer against Crystal Palace this weekend.
The Netherlands international has not featured for Southampton since suffering ankle ligament damage in January that ruled him out for the remainder of last season.
Van Dijk handed in a transfer request to force through a move to Liverpool over the summer but Southampton refused to bow down to the player’s demands and kept the unhappy Saints captain.
The 26-year-old stepped up his return to first-team action with the Southampton’s U23s in a 4-0 defeat to Aston Villa at the start of the week and manager Mauricio Pellegrino has revealed the defender could feature against Palace on Saturday.
“Virgil was training well. He played 90 minutes the other day, the reserve game,” The Daily Mail quote Pellegrino as saying in his pre-match press conference.
“But tomorrow [Friday] we will decide [whether he features against Palace]. Hopefully he will be getting better every single week but I am happy with that – not just about Virgil because everybody I think is ready to be part of the team.”
Van Dijk is widely considered one of the best defenders in the Premier League and Southampton will only benefit from his return if he manages to get over his failed attempts to leave the club.
In fact, since August 2014, no Premier League defender has picked up the WhoScored Man of the Match award more times than Van Dijk (10), despite having not played since the start of the year.
