Southampton: Shea Charles' international nightmare is actually good for Saints, here is why | OneFootball

Highlights

International breaks at this stage of the season are something that very few football fans ever seem to relish.

With the campaign just building momentum in its first few months, the pause in the action every few weeks for some national team matches that rarely seem to catch the attention to the same extent rarely seems to attract the same sort of interest.

Indeed, for certain nations competing in those matches, the breaks can be equally unenjoyable, and one country who have fallen into that category over the course of this week, are Northern Ireland.

While they may have beaten San Marino comfortably on Saturday afternoon, Michael O'Neill's side then suffered a 1-0 defeat to Slovenia on Tuesday.

That loss at Windsor Park was the sixth in eight matches during the ongoing qualifying campaign for EURO 2024, that the Green and White Army are now certain to miss out on.

One Nothern Ireland player in particular who is unlikely to have enjoyed the events of Tuesday, is Southampton's Shea Charles.

How did the international break go for Shea Charles?

Having played the full 90 minutes of Northern Ireland's win over San Marino on Saturday, things did not go as well for Charles in that defeat to Slovenia.

The Southampton man kept his place in the starting XI for that game, but was booked just four minutes in after giving away the free kick from which Slovenia would score the only goal of the game.

Then, shortly before the hour mark, Charles was shown a second yellow card for a late challenge on striker Andraz Sporar, earning the 19-year-old the first red card of his senior career.

Given the impact those moments from the teenager had on the way the game played out, you get the feeling Tuesday night's match is one that Charles will want to forget as soon as possible.

However, while that may not have gone well for the Southampton man, there is an argument that what happened to Charles while playing for Northern Ireland in midweek, could prove to be beneficial for the Saints further down the line.

How could Charles' Northern Ireland nightmare be a good thing for Southampton?

Given he is still only 19-years-old, Charles is of course, still at the very early stages of his playing career.

Indeed, the midfielder has so far made a total of just 23 appearances in all competitions for club and country at senior level.

As a result, these sorts of moments that he endured while playing for Northern Ireland on Tuesday, are something that Charles can learn from.

Given what happened when he made those challenges against Slovenia, and the consequences they brought about, you get the feeling the midfielder will think twice before he makes those sort of moves again in the future.

That is something that most players will have to learn through experience at some point in their career, and for Southampton, they ought to be rather relieved that for Charles, it happened while he was playing for Northern Ireland.

The midfielder has emerged as an important player for Russell Martin's since joining on a four-year contract from Manchester City back in the summer transfer window.

As a result of that, it is the Saints who are going to be the ones most looking to Charles for a positive impact over the next few years, as they aim to win promotion back to, and then re-establish themselves once again, in the Premier League.

Now, the fact that Charles has had this experience of his first red card in senior football which should give him something to learn from in improving his game, that could make him a more reliable option on the pitch for Southampton.

What makes that even more useful for the Saints, is that because it has come on international duty, that has happened without them having to miss out on his services through the dismissal and subsequent suspension.