Before the Coronavirus pandemic struck the world and suspended football across Europe, AFC Bournemouth’s 2019/20 Premier League campaign had been defined by injuries.
AFC Bournemouth headed into August 2019 with Cherries captain Simon Francis, England international Lewis Cook, Junior Stanislas and Charlie Daniels all carrying long term injuries into the 2019/20 season.
Steve Cook at that point was also sidelined and hadn’t featured during pre-season.
Then the news broke that both new signing Lloyd Kelly and David Brooks would require surgery. The season hadn’t even kicked off and the squad was already heavily depleted.
By December, AFC Bournemouth manager Eddie Howe’s injured players figure reached double figures and by January, every single member of Eddie Howe’s squad had missed at least one game through injury at some point in time. With the majority sidelined for prolonged periods.
Aaron Ramsdale, Adam Smith, Steve Cook, Nathan Ake, Charlie Daniels, Lloyd Kelly, Chris Mepham, Jack Stacey, Diego Rico, David Brooks, Junior Stanislas, Dan Gosling, Andrew Surman, Lewis Cook, Arnaut Danjuma, Harry Wilson, Callum Wilson and Joshua King had all spent time in the treatment room.
When the season was suspended in March, AFC Bournemouth were about to welcome a few players back from injury. Most notably David Brooks and Lloyd Kelly who had both not featured at all for the Cherries in the Premier League this season.
With the season suspension and month of training before the re-start of the Premier League campaign on 20th June, AFC Bournemouth could well have their strongest squad, in terms of numbers, all season.
AFC Bournemouth manager Eddie Howe told The Sun…
“Fingers crossed we will have a stronger squad than when we stopped playing.
“Yes, it will be a huge lift and boost for us when we get Brooks back — we’ve definitely missed him this season.
“He’s a very, very good player and did so well for us last season, building up such good relationships with all the others around him.
“So far he is looking good and I’m really happy with his progress, fingers crossed he will be OK for the first game.
“But it’s not just him. There are other players that could come back into contention.
“Arnaut Danjuma, Chris Mepham, Lloyd Kelly and Steve Cook are all back in training and they were not available when we stopped.
“I would like to think by the time we get back to playing, we will be stronger in defence and other areas as well.”
Your say…
blandford_cherry wrote…
Posted this way back in January when things were normal. Worked out we would probably finish on 36 points which would be borderline staying up. We were 1 point ahead of my thoughts on what we would get from games before the season came to a halt. Even with a dodgy 4 game spell in the middle of 0 points from 12 (could get something v Leicester?) it’s certainly going to be a nerve-wracking end to the season.
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No one gets relegated from the premier league in January…possibly Derby did one season but I digress. Yes we are on a horrific run, yes we can’t score, yes we can’t defend, yes it’s a massive up uphill struggle, yes key players are injured BUT and it’s a big but If we rack up these points we can get to around the 36 point mark, Chuck in a couple of surprise results with King, Danjuma and Brooks returning and maybe the odd signing life doesn’t seem quite so bad now does it…?!
ok I’ll shut up.
H Brighton 1 (3) +2
H Aston Villa 3 (3) +2
A sheff Utd 0 (0) +2
A Burnley 1 (0) +1
H Chelsea 1 (1) +1
A Liverpool 0 (0) +1
H Crystal Palace 3
A Wolves 0
H Newcastle 3
A Man Utd 0
H Tottenham 0
H Leicester 0
A Man City 0
H Southampton 3
A Everton 1
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