EDDIE Howe said Cherries could do no more to prevent long-term knee injuries, revealing: “We are as thorough as we can be.”

The boss believes that despite plenty of injury prevention work behind the scenes, “sometimes you are in the lap of the gods” on a football pitch.

Cherries have been hit by a number of serious knee problems since their elevation to the Premier League, with Lewis Cook the latest to be sidelined.

The midfielder on Saturday underwent surgery to repair a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament which he sustained in the win over Huddersfield Town last week.

Adam Smith is in the midst of up to three months out, while Dan Gosling is awaiting news on the extent of his injury.

Callum Wilson has endured two lengthy spells on the sidelines, while Tyrone Mings and now-Toulouse winger Max Gradel also suffered serious knee injuries.

Asked if the situation could be attributed to bad luck, Howe told the Daily Echo: “I’m not a great believer in saying everything is down to luck. But when you look at these situations, I don’t know what else you can put it down to.

“Lewis’s was in a tackle and he was slightly off-balance. The weight of the opponent forced his knee into an angle it didn’t want to go into. I don’t know what you can do about that.

“Dan Gosling’s injury came from a knock. Adam Smith’s came from a tackle. If someone else could tell me what it is...

“The lads do a lot of injury prevention and a lot of strength work on their legs. I would say we are as thorough as we can be in those moments to make sure we protect our players’ bodies as well as we can, given the science we have.

“Then, sometimes you are in the lap of the gods in terms of the positions players end up in and what weight goes through those joints.”

Wilson’s first serious knee injury and those suffered by Mings and Gradel came within a month in the early stages of the 2015-16 season – Cherries’ first campaign in the Premier League.

The club reviewed those injuries at the time to see if a similar situation could be avoided in future.

Howe said: “We tried to look at all the evidence and to look for any patterns. We spoke to specialists to see if they could shed any light, because it’s quite unusual to get three serious knee injuries in such a short space of time.

“The feedback was that it was just one of those things. You are seeing it a lot more in football. We are not alone.

“Lots of other teams have suffered serious injuries to key players. I think it’s the speed of football these days – it gets quicker and quicker but with that comes more pressure on the players’ bodies.

“If we were the only team suffering injuries, you would look at it differently but, unfortunately, it’s one of the side effects of playing at the level we are.”