AFC Bournemouth
Adam Smith is a confirmed absentee from Sunday’s Premier League match with Leicester City after his worrying-looking injury in the game with Spurs.
The defender went into an aerial challenge with Ben Davies in the second half at Vitality Stadium, land-ing awkwardly and, after a sustained period of treatment from the club’s medical staff, left the pitch on a stretcher.
Eddie Howe gave an update on Smith after the match and confirmed in his Friday press conference that he won’t be ready for the weekend clash with the Foxes.
“Adam Smith will miss the Leicester game for sure with the injury that he suffered last night,” explained the manager, before going onto to talk about the other injury issues in his squad.
“We’ve got a few bumps and bruises from the game, David Brooks came off, we think that’s just cramp but we’ll wait and see today to find out more.
“Steve Cook’s had a hamstring problem, that’s still not 100% even though he was on the bench yesterday, that’s the extent of our injury news.”
With a quick turnaround between crucial Premier League matches, the manager spoke about how he will assess his squad for readiness ahead of Sunday.
“We’ll have a look at the squad and analyse individually how everyone is feeling, look at their histories and see if they’re able to go again,” he said.
“The key thing is that everyone is able to give what the team needs and I think if you looked at yesterday’s physical performance, everyone was at their maximum, everyone gave everything for the cause and we’re going to need everyone to be able to do that again – if anybody’s not then I’m going to have to play somebody else.”
Asked about whether he’ll be looking to rotate his squad, Howe explained that his focus remains on selecting the team most likely to perform and have success in the match.
“Possibly, let’s see,” he said. “I think the most important thing is that everybody’s able to give their best but we know the magnitude of the game so we want to pick a team that can win.”
