EDDIE Howe revealed a number of his squad had been “playing with injuries” and admitted: “We have a couple of players who are struggling.”

The boss currently has the likes of Joshua King, Jack Stacey, David Brooks, Charlie Daniels, Junior Stanislas, Arnaut Danjuma and Chris Mepham out through injury.

And speaking ahead of Monday’s FA Cup fourth-round showdown with Arsenal (8pm), Howe admitted others would have to be assessed.

He said: “We will wait and see what team is available.

“We do have a couple of injury concerns. I won’t go into individual names but we have a couple of players who are struggling.

“There are players playing with injuries that, ideally, if we had a full squad to pick from, wouldn’t be playing.”

Defender Steve Cook is available to return against the Gunners after serving suspension, while Lloyd Kelly is back having returned from a thigh problem.

“I always back the squad and the players we pick to be good enough to win the respective game,” said Howe.

“We will look at who we have available, we have a very small squad to pick from. We do have injury concerns over some of the players that have been playing every week in the Premier League.”