BURNLEY might have been hoping to ease their way in to coping with the dual demands of the Premier League and the Europa League, but the fixture computer had other ideas.

In an ideal world Sean Dyche’s side would have played their Europa League third qualifying round first leg tie either at Turf Moor, or somewhere a short hop on a plane away, and then returned to home comforts on the first weekend of the domestic season.

Instead the balls at UEFA headquarters in Nyon handed them a Thursday night in Istanbul, less than 72 hours before the Premier League opener on the south coast at Southampton.

It doesn’t get much tougher. The four hour flight back from Turkey, crossing two time zones, would have got the team back to Manchester in the early hours of Friday. On Saturday afternoon they will head down to Southampton.

But Dyche isn’t the type of manager to curse his luck and question the fairness of it all.

"It's there, so we get on with it, as we always do,” he said as the clock approached midnight in Istanbul.

“I think the team are prepared for it, with travel nowadays we can obviously get a private jet and things like that, we've stepped forward somewhat as a club with that sort of planning.

"The players should be back in the UK, in their beds 4ish, if they had a night out they'd be back later, so they'll survive!

"I don't overthink it, these are super-fit lads, the only thing you would argue is it's right at the end of pre-season and the body is still adjusting to playing busy periods, but that's for all clubs.”

Dyche’s had to juggle his resources in Istanbul due to injuries. He’s hoping to have Chris Wood back at St Mary’s after he suffered an allergic reaction to a bite, but Steven Defour, Robbie Brady and Matej Vydra won’t feature.

"Woody should be available, it was an allergic reaction, so he'll be fine, he'll train (on Friday),” Dyche said.

"Robbie we have a behind closed doors game on Monday, so we're looking for him to play some football then.

"Steven is going to be a bit we think, don't want to put a time on it but certainly not the next week or two, and Vyds is catching up, and that game (on Monday) will give him some time as well.

"I think this early part will be about getting players fit, doing the best with the players.

"Hopefully we'll get stronger over the next few weeks and still put in performances as well.”