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First Team

Team news: Latest on Stacey & King

Jack Stacey and Joshua King are being assessed but are not in the frame to play at Rotherham United on Saturday.

The Cherries head to the New York Stadium off the back of three straight wins, momentum that has seen them grab a place in the Championship top two.

Stacey suffered an injury last weekend in the win over his former side Reading, keeping him out of the midweek success against Nottingham Forest.

In his pre-match press conference at Vitality Stadium manager Jason Tindall gave his team selection news, starting with the latest on Stacey.

"He's being assessed today, we're going to get an opinion on Jack today" he said. "So far the early signs have been quite positive for us and we hope to have some good news today, news where Jack will know what's going on and will have more of an idea of the time frame.

"We have no real fresh injury concerns, just a few knocks that were picked up against Forest that were assessed yesterday and will be assessed again today, but fingers crossed we're hoping to have everyone fit going into Rotherham.

"Josh (King) is doing fine, he picked up the virus while he was away with Norway. He's had some symptoms that have set him back a little bit.

"He's due back tomorrow, so he'll train tomorrow and it's a matter of just assessing where Josh is physically because he's not really played too many minutes so far this season, not had too many training sessions and then obviously picking up the virus has also set him back. Now we'll be assessing him over the next three or four days."

The squad on Tuesday was buoyed by the returns of Adam Smith and Philip Billing, the duo having spent time self isolating as a precaution after being in close contact with King.

"We were really pleased to have them back," said Tindall. "Certainly with the amount of games we've got coming up in quick succession we need as many of our good players available as possible.

"We were pleased to have Adam coming into the team with Jack missing out through injury, that was a big boost for us. Having a player of Phil's quality is also very important for this football team.

"We've been a happy camp this week - albeit disappointed with the way we finished the game against Nottingham Forest.

"It's been a pleasing week, the mood is good, everybody's confident and now we've got to go an deliver another good performance away at Rotherham."