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First Team

Team news: Gosling nearing Cherries return

Eddie Howe has revealed that Dan Gosling has trained well ahead of the weekend's trip to Newcastle.

The central midfielder, who has been out since the start of the season with a hip problem, could be in line to feature against his former club, with Jefferson Lerma suspended due to picking up five yellow cards. 

Speaking on Gosling's progress, Howe admitted: "He's trained this week and has trained well. We're really pleased with his progress. 

"He adds that experience and positivity to the group, and he's trained for the last couple of weeks now. 

"He's really hit the ground running since returning from injury and we're pleased with him. 

"Elsewhere, there's no David Brooks, no Charlie Daniels, no Junior Stanislas and Andrew Surman is still out too, so we're missing some key players but the squad is still in good shape."

The Cherries manager also discussed the impact of fellow midfielder Lerma and spoke of his suspension for this weekend's game. 

"I think the difficulty is, with the type of player he is, he's going to pick up those cards," Howe added.

"The ones for indiscipline, like time-wasting, are the ones that you want to wipe out but, with the speed of the Premier League, you can be a fraction late and pick up a card. 

"Both him and Philip Billing have given us that aggression which we've perhaps not always had, so we need to accept that they're going to pick up bookings with that." 

The Cherries take on Newcastle on Saturday 9th November, with kick off at 3pm. You can listen to live commentary of the game on afcbTV.