Russell Martin | We are not at full strength, but we will field a strong side

Russell Martin hopes Swansea City are through the worst of any Covid issues and the head coach is confident he will be able to field a strong side in Saturday’s FA Cup third-round clash with Southampton.

The Swans have not played since December 11 after seeing league games against QPR, Millwall, Luton and Fulham postponed due to Covid cases in opposition squads and within Martin’s group.

He admitted earlier this week that he was hoping to have a number of players back following periods of isolation.

And, while there will still be absentees due to the health safety protocols around returning to training and playing, the Swans boss is eager to get back to action with a side not too far from full strength.

“The squad is a bit fuller, we are still missing a couple who tested positive earlier this week,” said Martin.

“Over the last couple of days we have had no positive tests which is good news. We are not at a full quota with everyone training, but we are in a much better place and can put a strong team out.

“The players have trained well as they have come back, it’s been a good week and we are excited to have a game after a long wait.

“We hope we have broken the back of it, we hope that will be it but who knows?

“There are lots of guys who are fit, we will have a couple of young guys on the bench and the team will look different as some guys are not able to be involved because of the protocols involved in returning to training.

“But we will have a strong team, it will be the strongest team we can put out and it also gives opportunity to some players who have not had that opportunity too much recently.

“We hope they will make the most of that opportunity. We are looking forward to it, it is what it is and we have done as much work as we can with the guys we have available and we want to put out a good performance.”