After a poor start to the season, things had picked up for Southampton in the past few months.

An upturn in results and performances had seen Ralph Hasenhuttl's side pull away from the relegation zone, and despite a recent dip in form before football's suspension, they do look reasonably safe in the Premier League table.

The Saints are currently 14th in the top-flight standings, seven points clear of the bottom three, but after a similar story last season, the South coast club will surely want to start pushing up the table sooner rather than later.

As a result, there may need to be some significant changes to their playing squad in the summer, to allow that to happen, meaning some players may be forced to move on to make room for those coming in.

Here, we take a look at four Southampton players who could find themselves leaving the club in the next few months.

Having previously been a fairly regular figure between the posts for Southampton, Forster found himself down the pecking order last season, with Alex McCarthy and Angus Gunn both seemingly moving ahead of him in the battle for the number one spot.

As a result, Forster returned to former club Celtic on a season-long loan in the summer transfer window, and he has gone onto make 39 appearances in all competitions for the Scottish league leaders during the current campaign.

Forster will surely want to continue to play that sort of regular football beyond the end of the season, meaning he may look to force through a permanent move away from St Mary's in the summer.

Harrison Reed's career at Southampton has never really been given the opportunity to properly get going in recent years.

The versatile midfielder has spent each of the past three seasons out on loan in the Championship, first with Norwich, then with Blackburn, and now at Fulham.

With his contract at Southampton set to enter its final 12 months in the summer, Southampton may be tempted to cut their losses on the 25-year-old, who may also be keen to secure the stability of a permanent move away, after several years of switching between loan clubs up and down the country.

Arguably one of the more surprising moves of the January transfer window, saw Cedric Soares join Arsenal on loan from Southampton for the rest of the season.

The Portuguese defender, who also spent the latter part of last season on loan with Inter Milan, has so far yet to make his debut for the Gunners, having featured 19 times for Southampton during the first half of the season.

But with his contract at Southampton set to expire at the end of this season, and Arsenal said to have the option to make his move permanent, a return to St Mary's in the summer seems unlikely for Soares.

Despite being a regular feature for Southampton this season, it seems Long's future on the south coast beyond the end of the campaign is a somewhat uncertain one.

The Irish attacker, who made his 200th appearance for the club earlier this year, is another who is set to see his contract at St Mary's reach its conclusion when the campaign draws to a close.

With Long finding the net just twice in the league this season, the Saints may want to find a reliable strike partner for their leading scorer throughout the campaign so far - Danny Ings - and having only invested heavily in Che Adams last summer, it could be Long who is forced to make way for that potential new arrival.