ANDREW Surman admits his lack of game time at Cherries this season has been "tough to deal with mentally".

The 33-year-old has started just twice in 2019-20, both in the Carabao Cup, featuring in a further 57 minutes across three Premier League substitute appearances.

Having been a regular starter for much of his five-year Cherries career, featuring more than 150 times in total, Surman has been forced to settle for a place on the bench this campaign with Jefferson Lerma and Philip Billing commanding the top-flight central midfield berths.

Speaking to Eastern Daily Press, Surman said: "It's been a slow one for me so far, but in a way that's the natural progression at the top level of football.

"Every year teams are adding to their squads, players come in and the squad keeps evolving all the time. You've just got to be patient and wait for your chance.

"When I first joined and we got promoted I was playing week in, week out. It is tough to deal with mentally when you're not playing, but it's a squad game, you can get injuries and get your chance when you least expect it."

Surman could face his former club Norwich City on Saturday at Vitality Stadium (3pm). The Canaries were beaten 5-1 by Aston Villa last time out, but the midfielder is expecting an improvement from Daniel Farke's men.

"We're fully expecting a reaction and fully expecting Norwich to be at their best," he said.

"We know what they're capable of, so it's going to be a really tough game.

"You can't look at their last result or anything like that. You've just got to approach it as a one-off game.

"Everyone is focussed on this game and we know that Norwich have got strengths and that we've got to make sure we deal with those.

"It should be a good game of football. Obviously I'm going to say I hope that we come out on top, but hopefully it will be a good game."