Howe would be 'foolish' to involve Lerma after limited training

Colombia midfielder Lerma completed his £25million move from La Liga outfit Levante this week – but Howe revealed the World Cup star was not ready for match action.

Cherries will also be without fellow new recruit Diego Rico against the Bluebirds as he starts the first of a three-match ban, carried over from last season with Leganes.

Howe conceded Cherries would hold back Lerma until the combative midfielder was fully match fit: "Jefferson's only had one training session with us.

"He's come to us off the back of not training after the World Cup so that will be an issue for us in the sense we have to build up his fitness and help him acclimatise to the team and the squad.

"So there may be a period where people don't see him, but we want to get him up to speed.

"I'm sure there are other players who were at the World Cup who won't play this weekend.

"The difficulty for us is that Jefferson just hasn't trained so to involve him ahead of players who have played a full pre-season would be foolish.

"We have to make sure that when Jefferson steps on to the field, he is ready to play at his best level so will do some work with him behind the scenes.

"If he's not fit enough to play, it would be foolish to play him. We would never tell a player to miss the whole of pre-season and then step up and play.

"It's just not going to happen so we will take our time with him and make sure he is right."

Howe believes he has assembled the strongest squad yet in his time at Dean Court.

"I think we have improved the squad and I am very happy with our signings," he added.

"All the 20 fit players we have at the moment, they are all established players good enough to play in the Premier League.

"And when Junior Stanislas and Kyle Taylor are back fit, I think this is possibly the best squad I've ever had.

"I think everyone is very strong and there is real competition for places in all departments."