Bournemouth news: Opinion

Bournemouth were able to ride the wave of their injury problems over the winter months. January’s back-to-back wins over Newcastle (4-1) and Nottingham Forest (5-0), with a heavily depleted squad and no senior strikers available, will live long in the memory.

However, as March becomes April, Andoni Iraola’s side are feeling the squeeze in other areas.

Despite Saturday’s draw at West Ham extending their unusual sequence of four successive 2-2 draws at away games in London, the Cherries have only taken two points from a possible 18 in their last six Premier League games.

In the centre of the park, Justin Kluivert has missed the last two games with a muscle injury, while Ryan Christie has been playing through the pain of a groin problem for some time.

Christie posted “Time to heal” on social media earlier this week, and on Wednesday the club confirmed what many had suspected, that the Scotland international has now had surgery which will end his season.

Kluivert and Christie have been integral to Iraola’s high-energy, high-pressing system, and their work rate is not easily replaced.

However, the return to fitness of Adam Smith and Julian Araujo to cover the right-back position will allow Lewis Cook – who had deputised at full-back for most of the winter – to return to his natural central midfield role alongside Tyler Adams.

And as fan writer Tom Jordan pointed out on this page yesterday, it also presents England Under-21 international Alex Scott with an opportunity to force his way into the side.

Another encouraging sign at West Ham was the performance of academy midfielder Ben Winterburn, introduced off the bench in the 78th minute for the longest of his three league appearances.

The Hampshire-born 20-year-old, who joined the Cherries as an under-11, caught the eye with the levels of energy an Iraola team requires, and won the free-kick from which Bournemouth equalised.

He can expect more minutes before the end of the season.