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First Team

Team news: Pearson & Stanislas could make CIty

Ben Pearson and Junior Stanislas are in the frame for first team returns in Wednesday's match away at Birmingham City.

The midfield pair are yet to appear for the Cherries this campaign but are now closing in on their seasonal debuts.

Loanee Leif Davis came through his debut on Saturday, his first game back from injury, and is ready for further minutes if called upon at St Andrew's.

David Brooks is a confirmed absentee, however. The midfielder is set to serve his one-game suspension after being dismissed at Nottingham Forest on Saturday.

Speaking to the media ahead of the game, Scott Parker gave his latest availability news, also speaking about possible returns from Steve Cook and Arnaut Danjuma, who have been carrying more lengthy injury layoffs.

He said: "Ben Pearson and Junior Stanislas hopefully will be available or certainly around it and involved. 

"Steve Cook and Danjuma have trained but have been out a lot longer so in terms of workloads and where they are at they're in a little bit of a different situation.

"That's not to say that they won't be involved, we'll see tomorrow whether they pull through and whether they'll make the trip.

"Jack Stacey is similar, I'm not sure where Jack is at this moment in time. He's done some light work and with the situation we're in we're trying to push as hard as we can, which is why we're making more later calls than we normally would."

The head coach also touched on the progress of Lewis Cook, the midfielder who's making a positive comeback from his serious knee injury.

"Lewis Cook's doing very well, he's flying in fact," said Parker. "He's well on schedule and right on track.

"We'll respect his injury, he has trained with us now, in modified training so he's not fully training. I'm sure he feels like he can fully train, we all do, but with the nature of his injury you want to respect that.

"He's doing very well and he's on course."