Speaking to the press this morning, Eddie Howe has provided an update on the injury front, revealing FOUR players who won’t be fit enough for tomorrow’s game.
It seems the extent of Jonjo Shelvey’s hamstring injury is still not clear, as he’s in London as we speak to see a specialist, meaning one of Joe Willock or Sean Longstaff will take his place in midfield.
At the back, it also looks like Nottingham Forest will come too soon for Jamal Lewis, Federico Fernandez and Javier Manquillo. The latter has just returned to training, but all three haven’t featured during our pre-season friendlies.
However, Howe has declared Sven Botman “ready to play” after getting plenty of minutes under his belt since making the £32m move from Lille. He should start, but Howe has a dilemma given how well Fabian Schar and Dan Burn have performed.
Here’s what the boss has had to say on all of the above ahead of tomorrow’s game:
Howe on Shelvey, Lewis, Fernandez and Manquillo:
“Jonjo is in London tonight for another assessment so we don’t have a clear, defined timeframe on his injury.
“Jamal Lewis and Federico Fernández are working their way and shouldn’t be too long.
“Manquillo is back in training too so we’re not too bad.”
Howe on Sven Botman:
“I think he’s ready to play.
“I’ve seen him during pre-season and what a talent he is.
I think he’s going to be everything we hoped he would be.
He’s technically very good, very strong and very good defensively.
“We look at every player individually and try to make the right call for them and the team so what I do with Sven you’ll find out but I’ve been very pleased with the signing.”
