Wednesday 30 September 2015 16:25, UK
Bournemouth defender Simon Francis says he has never been at a club who have suffered such a bad spell in terms of long term injuries.
The Cherries are in the Premier League for the first time and are currently 16th, having taken a respectable seven points from their first seven matches.
But Eddie Howe's side have already lost three players to long term injuries, all of a remarkable similar type.
Record signing Tyrone Mings is out for the season after suffering a knee injury, minutes after coming on for his debut, and winger Max Gradel tore a cruciate ligament in his knee in the same match.
And Bournemouth suffered another massive blow on Saturday when forward Callum Wilson ruptured the anterior cruciate ligament in his knee in the first half of a 2-1 loss at Stoke, and he will be out for at least six months.
Francis says he has never known a club suffer such misfortune but that the team cannot allow their campaign to be derailed.
He told Sky Sports: "It is sad news. It has been incredible really, the injuries. I have never seen anything like it, never been at a club where lads suffer similar injuries.
"Even the game against Leicester, we had three players go off.
"Charlie [Daniels] went off, with his knee, which was not as bad as the others, then Mingsy came on for his Premier League debut - five or six minutes later, he is off. Max Gradel went off as well, so it is something I have never seen before.
"For 'Wils' to go down on Saturday is a huge blow for us. I think it might have affected us mentally in the first half, because we took our time to get going in that game.
"We were standing around for nearly 10 minutes while he was getting sorted and it had an effect on us - we bounced back in the second half.
"There is no doubt now we have to rally around the lads. We have got a small squad, smaller with the injuries, but we can't dwell on it for too long, because this is the Premier League.
"We need to get results and get them fairly fast."
