Soccer-Fonte taken off as precaution, says Saints manager Koeman

Nov 2 (Reuters) - Southampton captain Jose Fonte was taken off at halftime in Sunday's 2-0 Premier League win over Bournemouth as a precaution after he sustained a hamstring injury, manager Ronald Koeman has said. Fonte has been an integral part of the Saints' defence that has kept four clean sheets in the league this season and Koeman hopes the Portugal international will be fit to face Sunderland on Saturday. "Jose had some hamstring problems and it was not the moment to take that risk to continue and I hope because we changed in halftime he can be fit for the next weekend," Koeman said. Midfielder Steven Davis scored his second goal in his last five matches for Saints, while also netting twice for Northern Ireland in that time, after failing to score at all during the previous campaign. "I just have to keep on trying to get into those positions and hopefully get a few more between now and the end of the season. It's nice to see the ball hitting the back of the net," the Northern Ireland captain told the club's website (www.saintsfc.co.uk). Davis has heaped praise on striker Graziano Pelle, who has scored nine goals in 16 appearances this season. "I think he plays a vital role. I think everybody knows we like to try and play football, but he also gives us that outlet if we want to go a little bit more direct and he can cause teams a lot of problems," Davis said. "We can play off him and he's probably one of the best in the league in terms of doing that, so he's been magnificent for us." (Reporting by Shravanth Vijayakumar in Bengaluru; editing by Sudipto Ganguly)