Ahead of facing Newcastle United, both Bournemouth and Manchester City experiencing double blows.
Andoni Iraola revealing that Justin Kluivert will have surgery on his left knee after having being injured against Arsenal.
The Bournemouth boss described the injury as “very bad news” as the Cherries prepare to face Spurs in the Premier League on Wednesday night and then Newcastle United in the FA Cup on Saturday.
Almost exactly a year ago, Kluivert scored a hat-trick in the 4-1 Bournemouth win at St James’ Park.
A double blow now for the south coast club as their best player Antoine Semenyo (pictured above scoring against Newcastle at SJP) is set to complete his move to Manchester City after Wednesday’s game at home to Spurs.
This season has seen the attacking player in outstanding form once again, with nine goals and three assists in 19 Premier League appearances.
As well as Kluivet and Semenyo, Andoni Iraola looks set to be missing plenty of other players when coming to St James’ Park on Saturday. Ben Gannon-Doak, Tyler Adams, Ryan Christie and William Dennis all look sure to be unavailable as well, whilst it is in the balance whether Veljko Milosavljevic will be able to make a comeback from injury on Saturday.
Meanwhile, Pep Guardiola and Manchester City also experiencing a double blow before facing Newcastle United next Tuesday (13 January) in the first leg of the Carabao Cup semi-final at St James’ Park.
Josko Gvardiol always seems to play well against Newcastle United and scored in the 1-1 Premier League draw at St James’ Park last season. However, he is now having surgery on a broken shinbone and will be missing both legs of the Carabao Cup semi-final against Newcastle, plus many other matches.
In a double blow for Man City AND boost for Newcastle United, Antoine Semenyo won’t be playing for Manchester City either next Tuesday. Semenyo came off the bench in a second round Carabao Cup defeat to Brentford, so can’t play for Pep Guardiola in the competition once he completes his move to the Etihad.
(UPDATE
Apologies, since this article went up on The Mag, I have subsequently found out that the rules changed ahead of this season and in the Carabao Cup it IS possible to play for two different teams in the same season, if you meet the following criteria. I had seen nothing about this change but it appears to be that if is signed in time, Semenyo COULD face Newcastle United in the semi-finals.
Rule 6.4 of the EFL Cup says that a registered player shall be permitted to play for up to two clubs in the competition should they meet any of the following criteria:
Has appeared for his parent club in the competition prior to the closure of the summer transfer window and subsequently moved to a different club prior to the end of that transfer window.
Has appeared for his parent club in the competition prior to the closure of the winter transfer window or the first leg of the semi-final and has subsequently moved to a different club before the closure of the winter transfer window or the first leg of the semi-final.
A player joins on an emergency goalkeeper loan.)
I hadn’t realised that Manchester City have a fair few others missing as well (from their admittedly huge and powerful squad). On top of Gvardiol and Semenyo, the likes of Stones, Kovacic, Dias, Bobb and Savinho are all set to be missing next Tuesday at SJP due to injury. Whilst also missing, though due to the African Cup of Nations, will be Omar Marmoush and Rayan Ait-Nouri.