HUGHES IS EXPECTING HUGE INGS OFF DANNY

MARK HUGHES is backing Danny Ings to prove his injury nightmare is behind him and revive his career at Southampton.

Winchester-born Ings, 26, completed a dramatic deadline day loan move from Liverpool to his boyhood club.

Saints are committed to paying £16million to make the deal permanent at the end of the season even though Ings has managed just six Premier League starts in three years.

Boss Hughes said: “There’s risk with every player you bring to a club but he’s over the injury, that’s the important thing and he’s been back a while.

“Obviously we are mindful of any player that’s had an injury. He’s proved his fitness, it’s not as if we have to get him rehabbed.

“He’s a fit young man – he’s had the injury in his younger years. So you always get a better response and outcome when that happens. We don’t have any worries about his injury.

“The one thing that’s stymied him is the injury when he went to Liverpool.

“But he’s come back strong and he ended strongly at the end of last season and showed his worth to them. He’s fit, he’s well, he’s ready to go. “

Ings suffered two serious knee injuries during his time on Merseyside.

Hughes added: “He’s at a point in his career where he wants to start making an impression again.

“There’s a platform here. The club wants to do well and has good players that will help him get to the level that he’s been before.

“I think that’s one of the reasons why he made the decision to come here over and above other clubs, who really showed a lot of interest in him.

“He sees the potential here and the ambition of the club to do well once again.”

Ings is set to make his Saints debut against old club Burnley tomorrow – 16 years after being rejected by the south coast side as a schoolboy.

He said: “I can’t wait to get started, to play in front of my home town and do all I can for this club with great success.”