Marcus Tavernier helped Bournemouth edge away from danger in the Premier League at Southampton but the Cherries’ 1-0 victory came at a cost with the midfielder suffering another hamstring injury.
Tavernier’s deflected strike on Thursday evening settled a tense affair at St Mary’s Stadium and moved Bournemouth seven points clear of the relegation zone with only five matches of the campaign remaining.
However, Tavernier limped off in the final 15 minutes of the encounter and is a doubt for the visit of Leeds on Sunday, seemingly with a recurrence of the hamstring issues that have dogged him this season.
Tavernier only completed his first 90 minutes this year against West Ham after two separate hamstring problems and an apparent setback may thwart his attempts to be available for the end-of-season run-in.
“With Marcus Tavernier, obviously we need to see how he is (on Friday) morning,” Bournemouth boss Gary O’Neil told a press conference.
“That was the real disappointing aspect of the game (at Southampton), losing him to a hamstring injury.”
O’Neil explained Tavernier having to be substituted had knock-on effects for his team-mates.
“A couple of others cramped up,” O’Neil said. “Matias Vina ideally wouldn’t have done 90 minutes, but Tav needing to come off made it tricky, so he probably played more than he would.
“Marcos Senesi suffered some cramp and hasn’t played too much recently.
“There’s a few more we need to check on and we’ll have a look to see if we need to freshen things up.”
Bournemouth welcome a Leeds side this weekend who are also attempting to preserve their top-flight status although the Yorkshire club’s situation is more perilous.
They did at least snap a three-match losing streak by drawing 1-1 against Leicester at Elland Road on Tuesday but Javi Gracia’s side are hovering just two places and one point above the bottom three.
Leeds have had two extra days to recover for their trip to the south coast and while O’Neil accepted the situation is far from ideal, he is confident Bournemouth can summon the energy for the fixture.
“There were some big distances covered and the intensity of the game was high, but we need to be fresh enough to cause Leeds some problems,” O’Neil added.
