TOMMY Elphick hopes that Cherries will gain “an edge” over their Championship counterparts on the back of a physically-demanding international break.

The skipper has backed the decision to impose a testing schedule on the Dean Court squad ahead of their return to action at home to Charlton on Saturday (3pm).

Former Brighton man Elphick believes that he and his team-mates will reap the rewards of their hard work and insists that taking time off would have been counter-productive.

He told the Daily Echo: “I think the norm for most teams is to relax and take a few days off and focus on the recuperation side of it, but we see it as a massive opportunity to get a lot of tactical work done on the training ground.

“With the amount of games we’ve got coming up, we’re not going to have as many training days as we’d like, so we need to get in the minutes now.

“It has been a lot of hard work but we’re through it now and feeling better for it.

“If you look at older methods, you often had a few days off and paid for it when you came back, so I think getting your work in early is well worth it.

“With what our club is battling against, we do need to find an edge and we see this as an opportunity to get an edge over other teams. I think we will benefit from this international break going forward.

“It can break up momentum and it’s a little bit frustrating, especially on the back of the result we had against Bolton. But all the work we’ve been doing is for the games coming up, so there is no excuse for not building momentum now.”

Cherries have been without squad members during the international break, including striker Tokelo Rantie.

The diminutive frontman found the net for South Africa in their 2-0 victory at Congo in African Nations Cup qualifying on Saturday.

Artur Boruc was an unused substitute as Poland claimed a surprise 2-0 win over Germany in Euro 2016 qualifying.

The former Celtic man was in contention to feature last night away to Scotland.

Development squad keeper Benji Büchel was on the bench for Liechtenstein’s 2-0 defeat in Sweden on Sunday.