Bournemouth boss Eddie Howe has confirmed that midfielder David Brooks is set to feature for the Cherries against Crystal Palace. The former Sheffield United midfielder has not played for Bournemouth yet this season, having been out with an ankle injury. And Howe has confirmed that Brooks is in line to play against Palace as the two sides resume their Premier League campaign at the Vitality Stadium tomorrow and also confirmed that Ryan Fraser would not play for the club again this season.
Eddie Howe said “He’s looked really good in training so far, he’s looked fit, he’s overcome the ankle problem that he had and has looked better and better as the training we’ve had has gone on. In terms of game involvement, time will tell on that. Will he play every minute of every game? Probably not. Will he be able to make a major contribution to the games we have left? Hopefully yes. It feels good to be back, we’ll wait and see if the break came at a good time for us, we certainly had a lot of injuries to deal with when the season shut down, I have the strongest squad that I’ve had this season, so we’ll see if that makes a difference over these last nine games. You always have niggles with certain plays as you build up but we don’t have many players who I can say won’t play in this game, the squad’s the strongest that it’s been. He has played his last game for the football club, He won’t be involved with us for the last nine games, I only want players who are fully focused on the relegation battle that we have ahead. Nobody could have predicted what would happen with the season shutting down due to the virus, Ryan’s then found himself in a very difficult situation because of that. It was my decision. These are the most important games we’ve had in recent times and we need everybody in the same position mentally, fighting tooth and nail and giving everything for the football club, and Ryan, unfortunately due to his contract situation, can’t commit to that. Two games for us wasn’t going to make the difference for us, we wanted a nine-game commitment and unfortunately he couldn’t give that.”
