Jordy Clasie could be fit enough to face Newcastle after scans revealed no serious damage to his hamstring.

The Dutch midfielder was forced off in the first leg of the Europa League tie against Vitesse with a hamstring problem.

Though Clasie is not expected to have recovered in time to play a part in the return leg, he is now rated as touch and go to be fit for the Premier League opener on Sunday.

A relieved Ronald Koeman reported: “It’s positive. It looks positive.

“He’s not really for a long time out and maybe he will be available next week but we have to wait for that.”

Koeman is hoping to have extra reinforcements to call upon before Newcastle as Saints continue to work away in the transfer market.

He was non-committal over a reported bid for Celtic defender Virgil van Dijk, but the club remain in the market for a centre half.

“We hope to bring in next week one or two players, yes,” he admitted.

Koeman wasn’t entirely happy with what he saw from his players in yesterday’s 1-1 draw with Espanyol but thinks it is a good learning experience.

“You get the impression about new players, impression about players who didn’t play last Thursday, the team performance,” he reflected.

“Ok, maybe it’s difficult because this was between the two Vitesse games and maybe it’s a normal human reaction that you lost a little bit of focus for this game because it’s a friendly but we tried to do always the maximum.

“I think we had a sloppy start in the beginning and after the 1-0 down I think we played with a little bit more tempo.

“We had some good possibilities in the first half and after changing a lot of players we keep going in the second half, they didn’t create anything and we scored a great goal.”