Maya Yoshida and Gaston Ramirez will be fit for World Cup duty.

The pair are among four Saints absentees for tomorrow’s game against Aston Villa with Kelvin Davis and Jay Rodriguez also sidelined. However, Artur Boruc is fit enough to resume between the sticks.

With the World Cup so close it is a worrying time for any hopeful who picks up a knock, but Mauricio Pochettino is upbeat about the prospects of Yoshida and Ramirez.

“Maya and Gaston will be fine,” he said.

“It is also clear when you see a player like Jay Rodriguez get injured severely it has an emotional impact on the club and the players in an individual sense.

“When some of the players are playing for Southampton, but looking to play in the World Cup, it will be in the back of their minds – but it won’t be the case with Gaston or Maya.”

Pochettino is hoping his side get back to winning ways at Villa Park after the defeat to Cardiff last time out.

“It is very different teams and it will be a different game,” reckoned the Saints boss.

“We were quite unlucky against Cardiff because we deserved more from that game, we did everything to win that game but it wasn’t to be for us that day.

“I think it was one of the easiest games we could have won but it didn’t happen in the end.

“Now against Aston Villa we know we are going to be facing a very tough team, a very physical side and a very difficult ground but our focus is always to win.”

Pochettino confirmed that he will continue to field his strongest side for the remainder of campaign rather than giving yet more youngsters a chance.

“We are going to try and win the rest of the games we have. These last four games are our focus,” he insisted. “If you look at our entire season we have squeezed everything out of the academy and tried to use as many as we can.

“It has been good to see young players like Calum (Chambers), Harry (Reed) and Sam (Gallagher) play regularly in the first team.

“I am sure they will get their chances and there will be other young players who may not get a chance in the last four games but in the future following our philosophy and structure they will get a chance in the future.”

The Cardiff game marked 50 Premier League matches in charge for Pochettino and when asked for his reflections he said: “I am very happy during my time here.

“When I was looking at the Premier League from the outside I didn’t realise quite how great this competition is.

“The press does a fantastic job in actually transmitting all those values and everything surrounding the league in every single home in this country.

“If you look at the organisation, I have been in other cultures in Europe, the organisation here is by far the best. There is no doubt about that.

“I have also been surprised in a good way about the young players. There are young players who are very talented and they just need time to mature.”