A James Ward-Prowse free-kick in first-half stoppage time proved to be decisive as the game's only goal, but speaking to the media after the final whistle the immediate attention was on the condition of Cesar Azpilicueta rather than the 1-0 loss.

That came after our captain was floored by a boot to the face in the second half, with the concern of his fellow players clear even before he required lengthy treatment on the pitch and left it on a stretcher, and Potter confirmed it was a worrying injury, although the Spaniard has regained consciousness.

'He’s in hospital, so he’s in the best place,' said our head coach. 'He’s conscious and he was speaking to his wife so that’s good. We were obviously really concerned, especially when it first happened, but hopefully he’s in the best place and we’ll keep monitoring him.

'I think he was unconscious when it happened so we have to take all the precautions we need to take now and make sure he’s okay, but it was worrying. It was a horrible incident.'

Turning to the game itself, Potter admitted it wasn't the performance he'd been hoping for after some promising signs at Borussia Dortmund in midweek...

'I think the truth is we took a step back in performance, especially in the first half. It was a below-par performance in the first half. Returning from the Champions League and we had to make a couple of changes so you lose a bit of fluidity, you lose a bit of cohesion.

'Southampton set up with a plan and an idea, they mixed up the game well with a big target man, but our performance wasn’t what we wanted in the first half and I take as much responsibility as anyone for that.

'The response in the second half was good but it wasn’t good enough. I thought we deserved a goal. We created enough chances, good enough chances, to score but when we don’t then obviously it’s difficult to win football matches.

'When we’ve lost 1-0 at home to Southampton and, with the greatest respect to them, it’s not good enough, because of the results we’ve had recently. As I said, the first half was as much my responsibility as anybody’s, the performance wasn’t good.

'I thought the second-half performance was better and I thought we deserved to score. If you score then the game changes around but at the same time 1-0 isn’t good and we’re disappointed with that.'

He also explained why David Fofana was withdrawn for Raheem Sterling at half-time and why several players involved in Germany weren't included today...

'With David, it was just to use Raheem really. We wanted to use Raheem in the wide areas and that was the decision. It was a tricky one for David. I think he had one really good action, it wasn’t necessarily a reflection on him, more just tactically to use Raheem.

'With the others, there were no injuries, it was more just the turnaround of the games and the demand of the games, considering a few of them have had injuries previously. Certainly with Reece, he’d had two 90 minutes, which is more than we expected at the start of the week.

'So it was just a case of managing the load and managing the squad.'