£8m Scotland man suffers another setback as injury-plagued ace given expected return date

Scotland international Ross Stewart’s injury comeback has been further delayed after Southampton head coach Russell Martin confirmed he had suffered another setback.

The 28-year-old striker had been slowly building up his fitness at the start of the season and was handed his first start in 615 days in a 3-1 defeat to Arsenal in October, but he was forced off just 26 minutes into his comeback after pulling up with a muscle problem. He has been ruled him out of action ever since.

The ex-Sunderland marksman moved to Southampton on deadline day in September 2023, with the St Mary’s club paying the Black Cats an initial £8 million for his services as he neared a return from an Achilles tendon injury. It was reported the fee could rise to £10m, with performance related bonus included in the deal.

After a period of recovery, Stewart - once a transfer target for Rangers - finally made his debut for the club in November of that year, replacing Adam Armstrong late on in a 2–1 victory against West Bromwich Albion. Just a fortnight after making his Saints bow though, he suffered a muscle injury that ended his season.

Stewart enjoyed a goal-laden time at previous club Sunderland, which earned him a £8million move to Southampton in August 2023. Cr: Getty Images. | Getty Images

Forced to watch on as his team-mates won promotion via the EFL Championship play-offs, Stewart slowly built up his fitness in the summer and appeared off the bench in four English Premier League games before being named in the starting line-up at the Emirates. There had been few updates since he was forced off against Arsenal, but Southampton boss Martin has now confirmed Stewart has suffered another setback.

“Ross and Juan (Larius) are not going to be ready this side of Christmas unfortunately,” confirmed the Saints boss. “They've had such bad luck. I don't really know what else to say about these two other than that it's not through a lack of hard work or a lack of expertise in the medical department.

"Sometimes it's just bad luck, it really is, and we've seen so many consultants about both of them, we have people working with them. We've sent them to different places and now we just need to try and get them ready again for the next challenge. Ross will be sooner back than Juan. It's just a really upsetting part of the game unfortunately when people have such misfortune and a terrible time with injury.

"We'll do it all we can and the guys are in as good a place as they can be mentally in terms of where they're at and we just have to make sure of that."

After scoring 26 goals in Sunderland's 2021/2022 promotion campaign, Stewart broke into Steve Clarke's Scotland squad, making his debut as a substitute in the 2-0 Nations League win over Armenia. He was capped a second time just days later when he featured in the 3-0 defeat to Republic Of Ireland.