BOSS Jason Tindall expects the injury count to continue to rise among Championship clubs due to the packed fixture schedule, admitting: “Sometimes you’ve got to make decisions where you are putting a few players at risk.”

Cherries fell victim to the build-up of games, losing key midfielder Jefferson Lerma to a hamstring problem during the first half of Saturday’s draw at Watford.

The likes of Junior Stanislas, Arnaut Danjuma and Lloyd Kelly have also missed games this campaign due to muscular complaints.

And whilst all three of those players are now back and available as well as Cherries being buoyed by the news Lerma’s injury was not too serious and could keep him out for just a week, Tindall does have concerns over keeping his squad fit.

Cherries are currently in the middle of a run of seven games in 22 days following the international break. The Championship pauses again for two weeks from November 8 for further national team fixtures. When it returns again, Tindall’s men will then face a relentless schedule of 12 matches in 43 days up to the beginning of the new year.

Speaking after Saturday’s Watford clash, Tindall admitted he wanted to “rotate” Lerma and that his “markers were quite high” going into the contest.

Quizzed on why he did start the Colombian at Vicarage Road, Tindall told the Daily Echo: “We have to manage everybody on a daily basis, but personnel-wise, in the middle of the pitch, we didn’t have those players available.

“Junior Stanislas was the other one but again, with Junior’s history and Junior’s scores throughout that week as well, he was in a similar position where he needed to be managed.

“So it was just a matter of not really being able to have the personnel to do it.

“Jeff’s such a robust individual and such a big player for the team and for the club, we felt he would be okay. In hindsight, unfortunately he almost pulled up but I think a lot of that was also down to the amount of travelling he had to do with Colombia whilst he was away.”

Asked how tough it is to get the balance right of rotating the squad through such busy periods, Tindall added: “It’s difficult. It’s not just that, you have to look at the history of the player as well, what they’ve been vulnerable to and try and not really put players at risk, whilst picking what you feel is your best team or a team that’s going to go out there and win the game.

“So there’s a lot of things that you have to consider to get the best outcome. I’m sure it’s not just here, it’s every club are having these decisions they’ve got to make and sometimes you’ve got to make decisions where you are putting a few players at risk because that’s what you have to do.

“Sometimes you haven’t got that luxury or opportunity to rotate everybody.”

Tindall continued: “You have to be in regular contact - physios, sports science, coaches - we’ve all got an input in terms of what we think.

“And then blood scores and certain tests that the guys do on players to see how they’re scoring and what their fatigue is like gives us a bit more of an indication as to how they’re feeling and where they’re actually at.

“So when we put all that together, you try and come up with the best formula to get the best outcome. That’s what we have to look at, certainly during these real busy periods and with the amount of games that we’ve got coming thick and fast, I think you’ll see a lot of injuries up and down the country as a result of the fixture schedule.

“We had it last year after lockdown in the Premier League with a lot of teams and I’m sure it will be the same in the coming weeks. It’s something that we have to continually monitor to make sure that we don’t fall victim of that.”