Eddie Howe has been speaking to the media this morning, issuing a 9.30am update on injuries and availability ahead of tomorrow’s clash with Wolves at St James’ Park.
He discussed four players left out against Bromley (Isak, Botman, Murphy, Willock) and also revealed a player facing a month on the sidelines after picking up a muscle injury over the weekend.
Bad news for Barnes
Unfortunately, Howe has this morning confirmed that Harvey Barnes will be out for a month after damaging his thigh during Sunday’s 3-1 win over Bromley.
“He’s had a scan,” said Eddie Howe. “It’s not too bad but he will miss the upcoming games. We’re looking at around a month.”
Barnes failed to impress against Bromley and was withdrawn at half-time, although we don’t know at what stage of the match he picked up this thigh injury.
Either way, he’ll now be missing until mid-February, ruling him out of upcoming games against Wolves, Bournemouth, Southampton and Fulham, along with our semi-final second leg at home to Arsenal and (potentially) our trip to Birmingham in the FA Cup fourth round.
Howe on Isak, Botman, Murphy and Willock
In better news, it sounds like Alexander Isak will be OK for tomorrow’s game, although it wasn’t an entirely convincing update from Howe.
The boss stated that the Swede will be ‘there or thereabouts’ to start against Wolves after being rested on Sunday, but he hasn’t trained since our 2-0 win at Arsenal and will only rejoin the group today.
This comes after the striker came off at the Emirates last Tuesday due to tightness in his hamstring. However, Howe admits Isak “will be desperate to play” as he chases a club record of scoring in eight consecutive Premier League games.
Sven Botman, Jacob Murphy and Joe Willock were also left out against Bromley, with Howe set to assess all three in training today. “We’ll have a look at them (Botman, Murphy and Willock) again today.”
“They were left out with genuine reasons, all different things, but nothing major we hope. So minor problems that we needed to settle down. Fingers crossed they’ll be there or thereabouts.”
Speaking in more depth on Botman, Howe added: “It is always a balance because after two big physical games, with Sven we needed to rest and recover. There was a few warning signs that he was going into a fatigue.
“Then of course you need to get back up and running again because the schedule is unrelenting. There’s a few we will assess, we will try to make the right calls for them individually.”
I think Barnes has to accept his role as a supersub.
BykerBill(Quote)
I think we need to sell Barnes asap.
Out for a long time with toe issue, now thigh.
Doesn’t really influence games from the start and to say he is a supersub is questionable.
£38 million is a lot for now and then sub.
Wilson is another crock along with Willock.
Longstaff although having his doubters is nearly always available, but will probably behind Miley now.
Joseph(Quote)