Eddie Howe has been speaking to the media this morning, offering updates on the injury front as we prepare to host Liverpool at St James’ Park tomorrow.
The boss has revealed that Dan Burn is managing an ankle issue and has barely trained as a result. It sounds like he’ll be fine to play tomorrow, but it’s one to watch over the busy festive period.
Howe stated that he used his one-game ban (the 2-0 defeat to West Ham last week) to rest his ankle, but it still “didn’t feel right” and he’s had “really minimum training time”, showing how well he did to perform to well at Palace on Saturday.
As for Alexander Isak, the Swede told beIN Sports yesterday that he expects to play tomorrow despite being forced off with a hip issue over the weekend. However, Howe admitted he’s not trained since as he works on managing the pain.
Howe also confirmed that Kieran Trippier is “improving physically” and getting “closer” to being 100% fit and ready to start, admitting his creativity and quality down our right hand side has been missed.
**Howe on Dan Burn** – _“Dan got through the game really well, I have to say. When he got suspended, we used that as a chance to try and rest his ankle and get it 100%._
_“He had a mixed time in that period where he didn’t play, as in, it didn’t feel right. He’s been to see a couple of specialists, really minimum training time. I thought he was outstanding with all things considered at Crystal Palace.”_
**Howe on Isak** – _“He took a knock to his hip and wasn’t able to carry on. We haven’t seen him in training yet but I don’t think it’s a long term injury. We’ll wait and see. It’ll be time and pain management – and how quickly it settles down.”_
Elsewhere, we’ll be without three defenders once again in Emil Krafth, Sven Botman and Jamaal Lascelles, although it seems Botman is edging ever closer to returning after he was back in first-team training last week.