Ronald Koeman admits that while he would prefer to be playing Aston Villa on Saturday afternoon, it will give Morgan Schneiderlin and Steven Davis more of a chance of being available for selection.

Schneiderlin picked up a groin injury away with France, while the knock Davis sustained against Leicester City meant he missed Northern Ireland’s game against Romania and is still recovering.

There was some good news on Friday as Dušan Tadić trained with the first-team having missed Serbia’s friendly against Greece in midweek.

“We know that Morgan came back with a groin injury from the France national team,” Koeman said. “He didn’t train Friday. He’s doubtful.

“Steven Davis is as well for this Monday, but we still have two or three days to finally make a decision. We have to wait. If we had to play Saturday they can’t play but we have the game on Monday and that gives us two more days.

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“Dušan trained as normal on Friday so he will be okay to play Monday.

“I prefer for us to play on Saturday because that is the normal day to play football, not a Monday. But the players now have some more days to rest and recover from games travelling back to Southampton.”

The international break saw defenders José Fonte and Nathaniel Clyne make their debuts for their respective nations while Sadio Mané and Emmanuel Mayuka played their part in helping Senegal and Zambia respectively qualify for the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations.

Koeman says those international experiences have given his players plenty of confidence ahead of what is a busy schedule for the club over the next month.

He added: “Most of them are very happy about the performances and the results, like José who made his debut for Portugal and Clyney did very good in the two games he played.

“Fraser [Forster] played one game too. It gives the players the confidence and it gives a good challenge what they have had with the national team. It is a positive for the club.”