BOSS Eddie Howe revealed how no pattern had been found over Cherries’ knee injury problems and admitted: “It’s one of those things we have to accept.”

Callum Wilson became the third Cherries player to suffer serious injury in the space of four weeks when he broke down at Stoke last Saturday.

Big-money signings Max Gradel and Tyrone Mings had already been condemned to long spells on the sidelines following August’s draw with Leicester.

And despite extensive analysis, Howe explained that no common theme had surfaced over the incidents.

He told the Daily Echo: “We’ve looked at all the injuries and have tried to collate as much data as we can.

“The difficulty we had is that they were all tackles, twists and impact injuries so the only thing we could think that would be different to last year would be the pitches.

“The pitches are different, they are newly-laid, but Callum’s injury happened at Stoke and I don’t see that being a common denominator in it.

“Our training is exactly the same as it was last year, we haven’t introduced anything new to the lads, so we are struggling to find a reason. If we could find a reason we would feel a lot better about the situation.

“It’s when you don’t know and it’s really just luck. It’s quite worrying for us that we have had such bad luck at the start of the season.

“I think it’s one of those things we have to accept. Unless we can find any kind of pattern with the injuries, we will go about our business in the same way.”

Howe reported that groin injury victim Harry Arter had made solid progress and said he hoped that the midfielder would return “sooner rather than later”.

The manager also admitted that the full extent of skipper Tommy Elphick’s ankle problem remained unknown.

Elphick sustained an ankle injury in the victory at West Ham in August and felt discomfort in the joint in the loss at Norwich three weeks later.

Howe added: “Tommy has been to see a couple of specialists and we are trying to find out an exact diagnosis.

“He got a kick on his ankle against West Ham and managed to get through a couple of games but eventually succumbed against Norwich.

“We are hoping it’s nothing too serious but we don’t quite know yet.

“Whenever you are without your captain they are big shoes to fill.”