Saints defender Graeme Murty has been hit by another injury blow which will keep him out for six weeks.

Having only recently returned to first-team action following a knee injury, this news comes as a frustrating setback for the 35-year-old.

As a result, Lloyd James will probably slot into Murty’s right-back position, and will open the door for Paul Wotton to return to the holding midfield role.

Veteran defender Michael Svensson has decided the time is right for him to hang up his boots and admit defeat in his attempt to recover from the knee injuries that have plagued his career for the last five years.

He will now concentrate on his coaching career which began midway through last season, following 87 appearances in all competitions including the FA Cup final in 2003 and the subsequent UEFA Cup tie against Steaua Bucharest.

“Killer” was arguably one of Gordon Strachan’s best signings, joining the club exactly seven years ago from French side Troyes for £2m.

His first serious injury came late in the 2003/4 season in the warm-up at Fratton Park, not returning to first-team action until 18 months later, by which time Saints had been relegated to the Championship. Unfortunately his return didn’t last long and he was soon back on the treatment table. His contract expired in the summer of 2007 and, with no sign of a recovery on the horizon, wasn’t renewed. Determined to prove he still had something to offer, he remained in Southampton and used the club’s facilities to try to work himself back to fitness, and a year later was offered a one-year deal and began the season as club captain.

Unfortunately, his curse was to strike again only five games into his third coming and a disappointing 3-1 defeat at Rotherham United in the Carling Cup proved to be the last game of his career.

Saints have been rocked by news that midfielder Simon Gillett has been ruled out for the rest of the season with a cartilage injury sustained in training.

Gillett, 23, had finally begun to fulfil his early promise with a series of good performances in the centre of midfield and had started the last 8 games, so this will be a disruption to Mark Wotte’s plans, particularly with a run of 4 games in 10 days starting with Saturday’s must-win clash with Charlton Athletic.

Wotte does have other options, with Morgan Schneiderlin now fully fit again after a series of niggling injuries that have blighted him all season, and the experienced Paul Wotton also available.

Some slightly more irrelevant injury news reveals that Anthony Pulis has also been ruled out for the rest of the season with a stress fracture of the foot, presumably acquired through the shock of actually kicking a ball, having not even featured for the reserves since February 16th.

Saints’ training ground preparations for Saturday’s televised match against Bristol City have been affected by a gastroenteritis virus that has been going around the squad.

Ryan Smith, Joseph Mills and Tomas Pekhart missed Saturday’s comeback win at Preston because of it - although they have since recovered - and Bradley Wright-Phillips and Jordan Robertson have been sent home to prevent them passing the highly contagious bug on to anyone else.

Elsewhere on the injury front, Adam Lallana will resume training this morning following the ankle injury he sustained against Coventry. David McGoldrick missed training yesterday because of a bruised hip but is expected to be fit for Saturday and Jason Euell is only rated 50/50 for the Bristol City game after he withdrew from the Preston game just half an hour before kick-off. Michael Svensson came through yesterday’s training session without any problems, but according to the Saints official site will wait to see if he has any sort of adverse reaction over the next few days before declaring himself available.

Saints winger Lee Holmes will be out of action for up to two months following the knee injury he picked up in the defeat to QPR on Sunday.

It’s a bitter blow for Holmes who has started his Saints career so well, starting every game and scoring two goals from the left wing. The damage to the 21-year-old’s medial knee ligaments was caused by a hefty challenge from Rangers defender Peter Ramage after just 18 minutes of the 4-1 defeat.

Michael Svensson will travel to Sweden in the next few days for a check-up on his knee.

It’s not thought to be a major problem, but after he reported discomfort after training during the week, it was decided that it would be best to get it checked out properly rather than risk further damage.

Given the fantastic effort and commitment he has shown to recover to get back playing this season, it would be an almighty blow to lose our inspirational skipper for any prolonged period of time, particularly considering the lack of depth and experience in the Saints squad this season.

Jason Euell is likely to be out for two weeks after sustaining a shoulder injury playing for the reserves.

As one of the remaining high earners, it was hoped that Euell would be in a position to contribute more to the first team, but this setback has put paid to that for the time being.