AFC Bournemouth manager Eddie Howe believes that defender Adam Smith has suffered a "serious knee injury" in the defeat against Newcastle United.
The Cherries boss was disappointed with his side's performance, but also gave an update on Smith, who went down in the match with nobody around him.
He told the written media in his post match press conference...
ABOUT THE PERFORMANCE
I think we didn't perform well in the first half and I'm disappointed with the start, we gave ourselves a mountain to climb going 2-0 down.
We did well for phases of the second half but it wasn't to be, the lads kept going right to the end so that's an initial positive.
You felt like a goal was coming, but we just couldn't force it through.
ADAM SMITH'S INJURY
I spoke to him before I came into the press conference, he injured his knee in an earlier tackle.
He felt slightly unstable and went to take a quick free-kick, and his knee has just given way.
It looks like a serious one, we won't know until it's scanned but it doesn't look good.
I don't think it's a cruciate but it would be foolish of me to give a clear view without a scan.
ON ANY LONG TERM EFFECTS
We feel we're good enough to beat almost anybody in this league if we perform well, but today we haven't hit our best levels and have been beaten.
This league is ruthless enough to do that to you, and the challenge is now for us to analyse this game and we have to come back as a better team for it after the international break.
