Wolves have just taken this midfielder off Southampton's list

The medical happened at Molineux

Picture Downes going down awkwardly twenty minutes into the Stoke game. Eckert looks along his bench. The honest answer to what happens next is that Cameron Bragg plays every minute between now and Christmas.

Bragg started at Vicarage Road on Sunday and laid on the goal Cyle Larin scored but he's unlikely to be able to play 90 minutes every 3 or 4 days in the busiest weeks of the season.

Jordan James was the fix for that. He is at Wolves instead, on a loan with an option to buy that Rennes agreed on Wednesday.

Leicester borrowed him last season and voted him their best player. He scores from central midfield, which is the exact habit Southampton lost when Shea Charles went to Fulham.

The package runs towards £10m. Fulham paid three times that for Charles, so nobody can pretend this came down to what the club could afford.

Middlesbrough wanted him too, so nobody at St Mary's needs to take it personally.

It still stings.

Where Southampton go now

So who is actually left?

Dan Gore, if Southampton can win a scrap with Celtic for him. He has been at Manchester United since he was a boy, and the doubt is not about talent.

Almost none of his football has been played in front of a crowd that expects to win something. The Championship in August is a rough place to learn that particular lesson.

Signing him asks Southampton supporters to be patient with a young midfielder while the team sits at the bottom of the table. Eckert may not have that kind of time.

Saints Marching were pushing hard for James on Monday. Behind Gore the plan thins out to a loan for Harrison Armstrong, an Everton midfielder who has not done it at this level yet either.

There is money sitting there. Saints Marching had already flagged the James link as the obvious use of the Charles fee. None of it has gone into the middle of the pitch yet.

Caspar Jander has not kicked a ball competitively since limping out of a friendly at Eastleigh in July. Eckert talked about him as a late decision before Watford, then left him out of the eighteen. @SaintsExtra went through Wednesday's training pictures and could not find him in any of them.

Whatever Southampton do about it now has to happen before the 1st September. Stoke arrive at St Mary's first, on Saturday, and Eckert picks from what is already in the building.

Wolves solved their midfield crisis on Wednesday. Southampton did not. Expect to see Moses Sesay on the bench on Saturday.