AFC Bournemouth
Andoni Iraola has admitted that defender Max Aarons will be missing for 'some time', having sustained a hamstring injury in the win over Newcastle United.
The Cherries full-back was replaced in the 68th minute in the game at Vitality Stadium and Iraola has confirmed that he's set for a spell on the sideline.
Speaking to the assembled media ahead of Saturday's trip to Sheffield United, Iraola said: "We will have Max out for some time because he got injured in the past game against Newcastle.
"[Adam Smith is] ready to perform straight away, I have no doubts. Even the other day, without warming up because we didn't expect the injury, he went straight away and nobody noticed, he was very good."
Smith made his 350th appearance for the club in the win over the Magpies and Iraola reserved praise for the Cherries legend.
He added: "He's very solid, he's very reliable. To have someone with his experience and his reliability, for a coach, is very good."
The Cherries had 13 players absent on international duty over the last fortnight and Iraola has confirmed that there are no fresh injury concerns for those involved, although he still has decisions to make on whether they're ready to play at the weekend.
"It's true that we had half of the team outside with the national teams," he commented.
"We haven't had a lot of time to prepare for Sheffield United all together. It's just today and tomorrow when we travel that we are all together.
"There's two or three that still haven't trained with us, they are arriving during the day so we will see how they arrive, if they've slept during their travel.
"They have tomorrow to train but most of the squad trained today and everyone was fine. Everyone has come back in a good spot. Obviously with the travel they are tired and we have to analyse who will be able to help us, who can play some minutes, who can start but no serious injuries."
