Howe reveals injury blow ahead of Man City clash - 1 major doubt and 5 ruled out
Eddie Howe has revealed that Alexander Isak is a doubt for tomorrow's lunchtime kick-off against Man City.
Speaking to the media on Friday morning, the boss has confirmed that he had an injection on his broken toe before last weekend's 3-1 defeat to Fulham, but felt the issue stiffen up in the final stages of the match.
As a result, he's not trained all week and is a major doubt, meaning Anthony Gordon is on standby to start up top, with Harvey Barnes down the left and one of Jacob Murphy or Miguel Almiron down the right.
Matt Targett has had a bad eczema flare-up and is out, while Callum Wilson (back/hamstring), Lewis Miley (foot), Sven Botman (ACL) and Jamaal Lascelles (ACL) remain sidelined.
"He trained last week before the Fulham game and he had an injection in his toe to play. He felt fine but started to feel his toe in the final five or 10 minutes.
"He’s had scans, he’s had lots of tests. The injury has been diagnosed fine. It sounds far worse than it is but he’s got a broken toe. It’s one that can be managed and played with providing he can manage the pain levels. That will have no long-term risks. He had injections to numb the toe last week, so that was fine until it wore off."
"I don't think there's anyone coming back that's been out. Matt Targett had a flare up of eczema so he's been nursing that the last couple of weeks. It's been quite a bad episode for him. We're hoping to get him back to training but he won't play this weekend."
