The Southampton player who could be up for grabs after Sheffield United's visit to St Mary's

Despite being described as the club’s most consistent defender in the Premier League this season, Bertrand, aged 30, is scheduled to become a free agent following tomorrow’s match at St Mary’s Stadium.

Acknowledging that other top-flight sides could be tempted to try and tempt Bertrand away, Hasenhuttl said: “I’m always scared that players playing well in our team are interesting for others.

“But this is our situation we have to live with, it’s normal for us. We are a developing club. We develop players who are young, but we also develop players who are a little bit older.”

With Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg effectively making himself unavailable for selection by revealing he plans to depart this summer, Southampton will refuse to hand the Denmark international a farewell outing against United. But Che Adams, who started his Football League career with the visitors from South Yorkshire, is likely to start against his former employers. The centre-forward has scored twice in his last five outings, having previously gone 29 appearances without hitting the target following a reported £15m move from Birmingham City 12 months ago.

United, who paid an undisclosed sum to sign Adams from Ilkeston six years ago, are believed to have received around £3m of the fee City received after selling him soon after Chris Wilder’s appointment in 2016.

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