Southampton defender Virgil van Dijk has paid tribute to his teammates after being nominated for the Barclays Premier League Player of the Month award for January.

Van Dijk has played a crucial role in Southampton's revival following the turn of the year and the Dutchman's contributions have been recognised recently as he was nominated as the Premier League's best player for the first month of the new year.

Dutch centre-half van Dijk, who joined the Saints from Celticin the summer, has been left honoured by the nomination but believes that his Southampton colleagues are the ones who deserve the credit for his fantastic performances over the last month or so.

The 24-year-old told Southampton's YouTube channel: "It's an honour to be nominated and of course it's great news. It's all about my teammates and everyone around the club. I'm very proud of that.

"There have been some hard games for me and everything is new so I need to adapt, but I'm very happy at the moment.

"The situation we're in right now is good and I'm very happy and confident. I just want to keep going and hopefully get even better results and achieve good things this season. I learn every game and I'm very happy. I just want to keep doing what I'm doing and keep improving as well."