Once upon a time, AFC Bournemouth had an embarrassment of riches in regards to strikers.
Last season the Cherries still had Callum Wilson, Joshua King, Dominic Solanke who had been signed in January, Lys Mousset who was entering the final season of his contract and Jermain Defoe who is out on loan with Scottish side Rangers.
During the summer Mousset was sold to Sheffield United, whilst Defoe remained on loan with Rangers, leaving AFC Bournemouth with Wilson, King and Solanke.
AFC Bournemouth had struggled to offer their fringe strikers regular minutes, so cutting down from five, to four to three in a way made sense, but suspensions and injuries would always leave the forward line looking thin on the ground and that has now come back to bite the Cherries.
Ahead of the game against Wolverhampton Wanderers on Saturday, Joshua King was ruled out with a hamstring injury which had been suffered whilst on international duty with Norway.
Solanke was on the bench as an option for Wilson, but he too has suffered a hamstring complaint, leaving AFC Bournemouth with just Callum Wilson as a fit and available option upfront.
Discussing King, AFC Bournemouth manager Eddie Howe told the Daily Echo…
“…He picked up a hamstring strain very late in Norway’s second game. That’s a big blow for us to lose Josh…”
“…(It is a) a difficult one to tell with that type of injury.
“(It’s a) hamstring strain, a very minor one, but still enough to keep him out for probably a couple of weeks, minimum.”
Another side point from this afternoon, thought the second-half display was the best we've seen of Callum Wilson for a good few weeks. Looked a real handful. All the more important with King and now Solanke picking up injuries. #afcb
— Tom Crocker (@TomCrockerEcho) November 23, 2019
One option, however unlikely, could be to recall Defoe from his loan with Rangers.
The 36-year-old has a recall option in his current deal during January.
Your say…
Red_till_im_ded said…
We have to deal with Solanke and king out with hamstring injuries. How the hell has Eddie let us be in a position where we just have 1 fit striker in the squad !?? – Join the conversation, click here.
