Bournemouth trio ruled out of Newcastle United clash - but ‘quality’ star will return

Bournemouth will be without three senior players for this afternoon’s Premier League clash with Newcastle United.

The Magpies have been without key trio Bruno Guimaraes, Allan Saint-Maximin and Callum Wilson in recent weeks but the Cherries have also had to deal with a couple of injuries.

“We’re in a similar place,” revealed interim boss Gary O’Neil. “The game comes too soon for Joe Rothwell and Ben Pearson, they’ll still be missing.”

That said, winger Junior Stanislas is expected to be in contention after returning to training last week.

“Yeah, Junior has trained well,” O’Neil added. “He’s been on the grass with us for a good few days now.

“It’s good to have Junior back, obviously he brings quality that can help us no doubt.”

Newcastle fans joined football supporters up and down the country in wishing a speedy recovery to David Brooks, who was diagnosed with Stage 2 Hodgkin lymphoma in October 2021.

The great news is Brooks was given the all-clear in May and has been working towards a return to action.

The 25-year-old featured for Bournemouth’s development squad last month and unfortunately picked up a slight hamstring injury, which O’Neil admits is normal, especially having not kicked a competitive ball in 10 months.

O’Neil explained: “David Brooks suffered a slight setback in the development game he played. He had a slight pain in his hamstring, which is obviously initially disappointing for him but it’s not unusual for any player who has been off the grass for that long.

“When they come back, there is always a spell when they need to get their body used to being back on the grass every day.

“I’ve seen it so many times. Players who have maybe come back from a cruciate injury have needed to adapt again to the stresses of playing football every day.

“It’s not a huge surprise, although disappointing especially for Brooksy.

“We were never planning to rush him back anyway, it’s always David’s best interests (at heart). We’ll see how he recovers from that.”

Both Newcastle and Bournemouth sit on the same number of points (7) ahead of kick-off at St James’ Park.