Friday 26 April 2019 10:12, UK
Junior Stanislas is facing a three to four-month injury lay-off after undergoing surgery on his hamstring, Bournemouth boss Eddie Howe confirmed.
The Bournemouth winger was playing at full-back during last Saturday's 1-0 defeat at home to Fulham when he went off injured.
The 29-year-old joined the Cherries' growing injury list, with Adam Smith another player certainly out of contention for Saturday's trip to Southampton.
"Junior went under the knife yesterday, he had an operation on his hamstring," said Howe. "He will be out for three to four months, I will need to clarify that, but it's around that period of time.
"Junior's mentality is very strong, he has had to overcome similar problems previously and he's always come back and played a big part for us.
"Although he hasn't played a huge number of games he has contributed to the team when he has played.
"The challenge for us and for Junior is to keep him consistently fit because when he does play he's got undoubted talent."
On Wednesday, Bournemouth marked a decade since surviving an exit from the football league after suffering a 17-point deduction in Howe's first season at the club.
The club's rise from the brink of financial collapse to becoming a stable Premier League club has been remarkable and Howe said Wednesday's celebration had been a timely reminder of the progress he and the club have made.
"It put a lot of things into perspective," said Howe. "Recent form and a slightly negative feel around our recent results.
"Certainly when you look back 10 years and you see the situation we faced then and the challenges that were engulfing the club.
"There were incredible sacrifices that a lot of people made at that stage to keep the club in existence and then of course the heroic effort from the players to stay in the football league, to fight off going into the Conference and now we sit here 10 years later; it's an incredible story."
Bournemouth go into Saturday's game aiming to win away at their south-coast rivals Southampton for the first time in the club's history.
"I'm well aware of that from last year's game," said Howe. "That was a well-used statistic then.
"We didn't achieve it then. Southampton are in a similar position to where they were last season, but we need to respond better to the challenge than we did that day.
"We know the huge importance it has to our supporters so we need to turn up and give a good account of ourselves.
"It's set up perfectly, it will be a really entertaining game. I'm sure the atmosphere will be very good, that's one of the things I remember from last year's game.
"We need to make sure we impose ourselves on the game and we show our best.
"Our last away game against Brighton is an example of how we want to play away from home, how clinical we were, how effective we were with our defending, so we want a similar performance."
Bournemouth have been linked with a move for Stoke and England goalkeeper Jack Butland in the past week, perhaps as a move to shore up the defence for next season, but Howe said no plans had yet been made regarding summer transfer targets.
"We haven't formulated any plans regarding transfer targets or anyone towards next year, we're firmly looking at this season," Howe said.
"I'll have conversations with the owner and respective people at the club towards the close of the season where we'll formulate our plans.
"As I said, without formulating our plans it's ridiculous to think we're considering any positions.
"It's not the time for that at the moment, it's time to concentrate on our next game."
