A 12,000-mile round trip and arriving in England barely 24 hours before lining up against Southampton wasn't enough to put Watford recruit Andre Carrillo off making his first start for the club at St Mary's on Saturday.

Several of the Hornets' starting line-up on the South Coast had enjoyed a fortnight of training and recuperation over the international break, but Carrillo was busy racking up the air miles as he started two crucial World Cup qualifiers for Peru in South America.

The second of those was an impressive win at Ecuador late on Tuesday night, where he played 74 minutes before being replaced by Paolo Hurtado in Quito.

Head coach Marco Silva, who had been dismayed by the loss of Nordin Amrabat under his nose the previous week, was left with little option but to start the 26-year-old against the Saints.

It was a decision he would not regret, after a whole-hearted performance from the winger, and one which may have been aided by the words of the head coach before the game.

"It's my decision to put him in the starting line-up," said Silva. "He played three games in eight days now, but what I said to him was that it's his mentality which will get him through.

"We try to do everything well during the week, but football is a matter of mentality. Andre returned from the national team on Thursday, and only worked with us on Friday, but he did well."