Shane Long: Tough Europa League trip without newborn baby
Wednesday 23 November 2016 20:22, UK
Shane Long has left his newborn son at home to make Southampton's Europa League tie in Prague, with Sofiane Boufal a doubt.
Southampton will qualify for the knockout stages of the competition if they win against Sparta Prague at the Generali Arena on Thursday and Hapoel Be'er Sheva do not beat Inter Milan.
However, Long's preparation for the trip has been affected by the birth of son Jax Anthony in the last two weeks, though the father of three has revealed how his family life provides a positive distraction from football.
"It has been tough," admitted Long, when asked about leaving his son behind for the game. "We had him last Monday. He is now nine days old. We didn't get him home until Sunday, so I've only had two or three days with him.
"It is amazing. It is a madhouse now with three kids under six but I'm loving every minute.
"My wife [Kayleah] knows I have to get up and train so I do the morning feed when I wake up but she looks after him in the night.
"The first [morning feed] I was all over the place but by now I like to consider myself an expert. I'm up anyway, I get up early and I'm up with the girls [Teigan and Erin], so it is nice to have another face to look after.
"I had my first at 23, and it does settle you down a bit. You tend not to venture out to town and different things like that as you have a family to go home to.
"The big thing is that when you have bad results and injuries you go home and forget about football again. No matter how good or bad you do, you are still their dad. It brings it back down to earth pretty quickly."
Long is expected to start for Southampton for the first time since suffering an injury in last month's 1-0 defeat at Inter Milan, with £16m record signing Boufal facing a late fitness test having been ill earlier this week. However, both Jose Fonte and Dusan Tadic have not travelled with the squad.
Discussing his options, Puel said: "Jose had a pain in his foot. He made a tackle against Liverpool and he cannot play. And also Dusan has a problem with his nose.
"For the moment it is a serious problem and I don't know if for the next game against Everton he can play with this but it is difficult.
"Sofiane this week was sick, and he came back just [on Thursday] morning. He travelled with us, and we're going to see if he can participate in this game.
"But in general, with Sofiane, we have to be patient with him, because he came back after five or six months [out]."
Although Southampton came out convincing 3-0 winners at St Mary's in September, Sparta have won their last three games in Europe under temporary boss David Holoubek, having sacked Zdenek Scasny.
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