Southampton's Charlie Austin's injury not as bad as first feared

Ronald Koeman has revised Charlie Austin's recovery time to "between two and four weeks" after a scan on the striker's hamstring.

Southampton boss Koeman initially predicted Austin could miss as many as six weeks with an injury suffered during Tuesday night's defeat at Bournemouth.

But further examination has revealed only minor damage, meaning a quicker rehabilitation.

Koeman said: "It's a Grade One injury, and normally that's between two and four weeks - it wasn't the worst hamstring injury."

Austin signed for Southampton after missing a month at QPR with hamstring trouble, but Koeman said: "It's a different place - it's not the same injury he had when he came to Southampton."

The manager's prognosis suggests Austin is likely to miss games against Sunderland, Stoke and Liverpool before this month's international break.

Shane Long will also miss the first of those after taking a kick to his knee at Bournemouth, but Koeman said: "We have a good hope he will be available next weekend.

"He was feeling a knock on his knee and it is really painful but it will not be a problem next weekend.

"It is part of football, it is hard to take for Charlie, it is hard to take for us because we have lost two front players.

"We lost two and now we need the rest of the strikers to do the job."