Sadio Mane may have to wait for a first Saints start with a gruelling international journey all but ruling him out of a full debut against Newcastle.

There is much excitement and anticipation amongst Saints fans about the arrival of their new £10m free scoring midfielder, but the chances of him making a start against the Magpies this Saturday appear slim.

Mane is already committed to appearing for his country, Senegal, in an African Cup of Nations qualification game in Botswana tonight.

With the game set to wrap up at about 9pm UK time, and a near 12-hour flight to get to England, Mane is not scheduled to arrive in to Southampton until Friday at current reckoning.

Due to his international call up, and the fact that he was in Munich on deadline day when the move to Saints was sealed, Mane has yet to come to Southampton.

Assuming he does manage to get back in time for training on Friday, then it will be the first chance he gets to meet his new teammates and take in his new surroundings.

With that in mind, and the travel to recover from, Ronald Koeman is expected to break Mane in gently.

It may be that he decides his new man is able to take a place on the bench and possibly even contribute as a sub during the game at St Mary’s, but the chances of Mane starting look slim.

After the game on Saturday, Saints do have a full week to get Mane fully up to speed before they travel to Wales to take on early-season high-fliers Swansea.

At least Mane will be fit after his international exploits.

He played in last week’s African Cup of Nations opening qualifying game against Egypt, scoring just before half time in a 2-0 win for his country.

Fellow deadline day signing Toby Alderweireld was at Saints to complete his move in person before the transfer window closed, but departed quickly to join up with the Belgium squad.

He is expected back earlier than Mane and has a greater chance of starting against Newcastle, though Koeman will assess his fitness and how quickly he settles into training with the new squad before throwing him straight into Premier League action.

Alderweireld played for his country in the 2-0 friendly win over Australia last Thursday, but that is his only competitive match action of 2014/15 so far.

Koeman is also set to welcome back the rest of his full international stars.

Fraser Forster has been away with England while Dusan Tadic, Morgan Schneiderlin and Steven Davis have seen action with Serbia, France and Northern Ireland respectively.

Maya Yoshida is making the long return from Japan after representing his country – he played in a friendly win against Venezuela yesterday – goalkeepers Artur Boruc and Cody Cropper have been with Poland and the USA, and Shane Long with the Republic of Ireland.

James Ward-Prowse, meanwhile, has been away with the England under-21 squad.