Southampton defender Duje Caleta-Car will be eligible to return to face Newcastle United in the second leg of the Carabao Cup semi-final despite receiving a red card. The centre-back was dismissed late in the first-leg on Tuesday night as the Magpies recorded a 1-0 victory at St Mary's.
Caleta-Car was shown a yellow card in the first-half for a late challenge on Miguel Almiron. The Croatian international was then given a second booking after tripping Allan Saint-Maximin in the closing stages to prevent the forward breaking into the box and potentially doubling Newcastle's lead.
The rules on yellow cards were changed from the 2019/20 season so suspensions for accumulating bookings only apply to the specific competition. However, red cards apply to all domestic competitions which means Caleta-Car will serve his one-match ban for Southampton's FA Cup fourth-round tie against Blackpool on Saturday.
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Lyanco and Mohammed Salisu are likely to start at the heart of defence, with Jan Bednarek cup-tied after representing Aston Villa in their shock third-round defeat to Stevenage. Armel Bella-Kotchap is not expected to be risked at the weekend following his return from injury.
Reflecting on Caleta-Car's dismissal, Saints boss Nathan Jones said: “I've complained about it to my players because he [Saint-Maximin] should have been stopped before then, then [Caleta-Car] is back-pedalling and is on a booking from the first half. He made a couple of bad decisions but he’s trying to be aggressive, to be fair.
"In the first half, we tried to be really aggressive and step out and make them play around us. It could have been avoided but no [complaints] from the referee.”
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