CHERRIES will be without goalkeeper Neto for the “long term” according to interim boss Gary O’Neil, with the Brazilian suffering a hamstring injury away at West Ham. Former Barcelona man Neto was unable to continue on Monday night, initially going down after a clearance in the first half. He was replaced at half time by last season’s number one Mark Travers, with both goalkeepers conceding once during an eventual 2-0 defeat at the London Stadium. When asked for the latest on the 33-year-old,
Gary O’Neil shared: “Neto will be out. He has an issue with his hamstring. We’re not sure how long. It won’t be short term, it’ll be fairly long term, we think, in that. I mean, it won’t be a week or two. So Neto is going to be out for the next couple at least.”
Travers’ substitute appearance against West Ham represented his first minutes under Gary O’Neil, his last appearances coming under previous boss Scott Parker, for whom he was first choice. Prompted if Travers would have a psychological challenge coming back into the side, O’Neil dismissed concerns, stressing his “full faith” in the Irishman.
Gary O Neil restarted: “No, I don’t think he’ll have a psychological challenge. I think his training performances since that moment have been top drawer. I’ve zero concerns around putting him back in. I think I made it very clear when the change was made that I was delighted to have both of them and I saw them both as number ones and it was just Neto at that moment for whatever reasons I felt. But yeah, putting Mark Travers back in doesn’t concern me at all. I have full faith in him.”
O’Neil made the decision to swap goalkeepers when appointed interim boss, taking Travers out of the side following a 9-0 defeat to Liverpool. The caretaker head coach believed Neto helped “steady the ship” for Cherries, again stressing that he was happy with either goalkeeper in between the sticks.
Gary O Neil said: “He brought calmness to us. He helped us steady the ship when we had some tough results. But when I was asked about it initially, I said I’m really pleased to have them both. Because Travs is a top goalkeeper, he makes top saves when he trains with us as a team, when we do our team stuff, he’s been making fantastic saves. Whenever I check in with the goalkeeper coach as to what they’re doing when they’re not with us, he always says he was top again. So yeah, as I said at the time, we’re fortunate that we’ve got two that we can put in.”
