Bournemouth injury blow as six players ruled out v Newcastle United - key trio doubtful

Bournemouth are set to be without several first-team players when they host Newcastle United this evening (kick-off 5:30pm).

The Magpies are unbeaten in 16 Premier League matches and sit 4th in the table. Bournemouth, meanwhile, are in poor form having not won any of their previous eight games.

Indeed, Gary O’Neil hasn’t tasted victory since being appointed permanent Cherries boss - leaving the South Coast outfit 19th in the top-flight. And injuries to key players have not helped the former Portsmouth and Middlesbrough midfielder’s cause.

“We’ve been really unfortunate with injuries,” O’Neil said. “A lot of impact ones or innocuous ones, that have been to real key players as well. So we have suffered a tough spell injury-wise.”

O’Neil is expected to miss up to six players for the visit of former boss Eddie Howe - and they are Junior Stanislas, Ryan Fredericks, David Brooks, Lloyd Kelly, Jack Stephens and Illya Zabarnyi.

“I don’t like talking too much about it a day before a game, because you don’t want to give too much away,” he said. “What I can say is David Brooks won’t be involved, Junior Stanislas won’t be involved, Ryan Fredericks won’t be involved this weekend.

Lewis Cook, Dominic Solanke, Marcus Tavernier and Philip Billing could return, although can be rated as doubtful with O’Neil giving nothing away during his post-match press conference.

The 39-year-old said: “Lewis Cook, Philip Billing, Dom Solanke and Marcus Tavernier were all missing from the last game. They’re big players, and being able to put them back into a matchday squad will be as big as us putting the new faces back in.”

“Dom (Solanke) and Tavs (Marcus Tavernier) have had really good weeks on the grass, and then there’s a couple of late calls on others. So I’ll make you wait until 2pm tomorrow to find out who’s fit and who isn’t. But that’s as much as I can tell you at the moment.”

Newcastle are without Bruno Guimaraes (suspended), Matt Targett (heel), Javier Manquillo (knee) and Emil Krafth (ACL).