The Brazilian had surgery on a broken metatarsal in January and made a surprise return to the Bournemouth match day squad in the league game against Wolves.
While the striker didn’t come on in that game, Iraola saying they didn’t want to risk him with the extra effort needed with ten men, he did come off the bench on Tuesday night at Brighton.
Then, Evanilson was named in the starting 11 for the cup visit of Wolves last weekend.
He looked a threat throughout, making his trademark runs in behind the defence that Cherries fans had become accustomed to before his injury, and pressing with energy from the front.
(Image: Adam Davy/PA Wire) The number nine was rewarded with a goal, too, showing good striker’s instincts to follow up an Antoine Semenyo shot after the Ghanaian was picked out by a wonderful pass up from the back by James Hill.
Sam Johnstone saved Semenyo’s effort, but Evanilson was there to stroke the ball into the empty net to hand the Cherries the lead after half an hour.
He wasn’t the only one to have recently returned from injury in the Bournemouth squad, with Alex Scott starting in the place of Ryan Christie and Luis Sinisterra coming off the bench to score the match-winning penalty in the shootout.
Asked by the Daily Echo how much of a boost those performance would be for the confidence of the returning injured players, Iraola said: “I think Sini, Eva, Alex Scott, they are coming from long periods out of the team and I think everything that happens to them physically.
“Evanilson scoring is good also because it affects a little bit your mental side and it helps you to get closer to the place where your teammates are.”
On the Brazilian, Iraola explained: “I think he probably played better than we expected because he has been cleared, but really we haven't trained this week.
“We've had a week where we played three games, very demanding.
(Image: Adam Davy/PA Wire) “So he hasn't had the chance, really, to add quality training. And we really didn't know how many minutes he could play.
“But I wanted to go from the beginning because it's like, okay, if you can play even 30, you have to change you in the first half, we change you in first half.
“But I didn't want to finish with the feeling that he plays 30 minutes and then maybe he could have played more.
“That's why he started today and he played, I think, a good level first half, second half he was getting tired, but it's normal and I hope we can build with him to arrive in a better spot in the next games.”