On Tuesday night, we play one of the biggest games in our history as we host Barcelona in the first leg of our Champions League last 16 tie.
Having been knocked out of the FA Cup by Man City this past weekend, Eddie Howe has affirmed that going far in Europe remains the team’s top priority.
And having endured a narrow defeat to Hansi Flick’s formidable Spanish champions back in September, Howe and the lads will be keen to right the wrongs of that game and deliver one of the standout performances of not only our season so far, but of Howe’s entire tenure as manager.
Speaking ahead of the game, the manager delivered a key fitness update on a number of his stars:
Eddie Howe has revealed that there’s no certainty Tino Livramento will start against Barcelona on Tuesday night.
Joined by Lewis Hall in Monday afternoon’s press conference, Howe described Livramento’s current availability as a “delicate balance”, which completely understandable after the right back has already been rushed back too soon from one injury spell already this season.
“He’s probably hasn’t done enough training for me to feel 100 per cent confident that he’s in that best physical moment, especially for such a big game, to start.
“He’s in our squad, and anyone else in that position is in contention to play. It’s a delicate balance with Tino at the moment. He trained again this morning, he trained again on Friday, he’s in good spirits and in a good place.”
“He’s a massive player for us. It’s good to have him back. Obviously I’ve got to try and get the team selection right.”
Elsewhere in the squad, each of Anthony Gordon, Joelinton, Dan Burn and Jacob Murphy all trained on Monday ahead of the game, after none of the named stars started Saturday night’s game against Man City.
There was concern over the availability of Gordon Joelinton and Murphy in particular as they dealt with their own respective injuries and workload issues, but it seems that each have been given the green light to feature on Tuesday.
For the visitors, we know they will be without some huge first team stars: Frenkie de Jong was ruled out with a bicep injury last week, whilst fellow midfielder Gavi is still recovering from knee surgery he underwent back in September.
In the defence, neither fullback Alejandro Balde or Jules Kounde is set to feature either, as each man has a hamstring concern which rules them out until April.
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