Watford have three players doubtful for tomorrow’s match with Southampton as they look to bounce back from last week’s 4-0 defeat to Crystal Palace.

Sean Murray and Troy Deeney both missed Saturday’s defeat at Selhurst Park and Lee Hodson is a doubt with sickness.

Manager Sean Dyche said: “Lee Hodson has gone home with sickness but we are hoping he can shake that off before the weekend.”

He continued: “Sean is a maybe, he is a possible rather than a probable. Whereas with Troy, we will be making a late decision on him.

“The rehab has gone well so we will make a late decision on Troy. We will know more tomorrow (Friday).”

Dyche believes Murray’s thigh strain is a minor injury but he will not be rushing the second-year scholar’s recovery.

Speaking on Tuesday, the Hornets boss said: “He is settling down nicely. It is a minorish strain but with them you have to be careful. The medical team will look at that wisely.

“Maybe for Sean, it was one of those where the extra games and the extra emotion of playing first team football, the extra fatigue set in.

“We try to monitor these boys wisely, monitor their workload away from the games so fortunately we don’t think it is a major one but we want to make sure it has settled down and is right the first time.”

Watford will once again be without Stephen McGinn and Martin Taylor but there was good news this week as the experienced defender’s x-ray gave his broken toe the all clear.

Dyche said: “It is hard to put exact dates on Martin’s return.

“We think it is a fitness and contact issue and you are hoping over the coming weeks that he starts getting on with it quickly and presuming all goes to plan, it will be a reasonably quick process.

“But it will not be an overnight process because he had just had 20 minutes of a reserve game [following his previous injury in October].

“He hasn’t played a physical game for four months and during that time he has played just 20 minutes so it is not just being up to speed physically, but being up to speed playing games, where you feel mentally and physically prepared,” the manager added.

- In an article earlier this week we attributed comments to Sean Dyche stating the Watford manager "knew" his side would under-perform at Crystal Palace. We would like to make it clear that Dyche's direct quote said he "sensed" they may under-perform before match. We are happy to clarify the situation.