Diego Lugano in race to make the big kick-off for West Brom

The Uruguay captain is said to be "two or three weeks" behind his new Baggies team-mates after joining the club deep into the pre-season campaign.

That means the 32-year-old centre-back is touch and go for the meeting with the Saints a week on Saturday.

Assistant head coach Keith Downing said: "He is probably two or three weeks away from full fitness. He hasn't trained or been up to speed for two or three weeks so he's got to work again.

"He is in the pre-season stage that the rest of the boys were in probably a week or 10 days ago.

"We've still got 11 days until the first game and he'll be working hard with our fitness guys between now and then but he has been behind in terms of pre-season."

Lugano is unlikely to figure in Saturday's final pre-season game against Italian side Bologna at The Hawthorns but does expect to be called up Uruguay's friendly against Japan next week.

Jonas Olsson and Gareth McAuley look likely to start against Southampton.

Meanwhile, Downing has insisted places are still up for grabs in the starting line-up to face the Saints with one warm-up match to go.

The most obvious areas for debate are at left-back, where Liam Ridgewell and Goran Popov have shared pre-season duties, and in midfield, where Claudio Yacob, Youssouf Mulumbu, Chris Brunt, James Morrison and Graham Dorrans have all impressed at various times in pre-season.

Downing said: "We're 11 days away now from the start of the season and, fitness-wise, the squad's looking good.

"We're up to speed with one more game to go before the big kick-off.

"I still think there are places up for grabs but the first game is homing in and we'll have another chance to look at one or two things and certain people against Bologna. The coaching staff have a general a idea about what we plan to do but we're also hoping to get more players in to strengthen the squad."