Eddie Howe has confirmed that Sandro Tonali will “definitely” be involved in tomorrow night’s cup clash with Nottingham Forest, but Callum Wilson won’t be back until after next month’s international break.
The boss insists Tonali is fit and ready to play after working “incredibly hard” on his fitness over his 10-month spell on the sidelines, believing Wednesday’s trip to the City Ground could be an “incredible release” for the 24-year-old.
Howe also hinted at rotation, saying “we will make changes.” However, he promises to field a “really strong team”, feeling we now have a squad that allows us to rotate, with Harvey Barnes, Joe Willock and Kieran Trippier all adding quality from the bench in Sunday’s 1-1 draw at Bournemouth.
Wilson is making good progress and will be “back soon”, but won’t make our trip to Forest or Sunday’s clash with Spurs. With an international break following that, it seems our game at Wolves on September 15th is his earliest possible return date, if not our clash with Fulham on September 21st.
Howe on Sandro Tonali – “He will definitely be in involved. He is fit, he just hasn’t had the game time. He has done everything else. He’s fit he just hasn’t had the match. 11 v 11 is the most important thing but he has worked incredibly hard to be on top of his fitness.
“I imagine (he’ll feel) a range of emotions – a lot of excitement. When you have a long time out, you have a long time to analyse and reflect. Now it is just back to doing what he loves. It will be an incredible release for him. I want Sandro to come back and enjoy his football.”
Howe on team selection – “We will try and play a really strong team; we want to progress. We will make changes as well at the same time, because we have a squad that I think enables me to do so, while not weakening the quality, we saw the strength of our bench on Sunday, which made a huge difference.
“There are a lot of players eager to…
Source link : https://www.nufcblog.co.uk/2024/08/27/tonali-update-howe-hints-at-changes-and-reveals-callum-wilson-return-date/
Author : Olly Hawkins
Publish date : 2024-08-27 10:15:30
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