King has got to 'work extremely hard' to get fit and firing for Cherries

The Norwegian striker is set to miss tomorrow’s game against Preston at Vitality Stadium, as he continues to build up his fitness, after having to self-isolate following a positive test for COVID-19.

King has seen his game time limited to just five Championship appearances out of 14 this season, due to injury and illness.

And Tindall insists that lack of game time will be frustrating for the former Manchester United man.

“He’s missed a lot of football, Josh,” the manager told the Daily Echo.

“Even when he came to us (after the summer) he was short on fitness and hadn’t had much training or game exposure.

“With the coronavirus setting him back for pretty much a couple of weeks – it’s almost put him back again.

“The initial phase of his training will be a lot of hard work on the training ground, making sure we get him up to speed as quickly as we can.

“He’s certainly not going to be involved (against Preston).”

King’s last competitive appearance for Cherries came in a 1-0 defeat to Sheffield Wednesday at the start of November.

He was an unused substitute against Birmingham ahead of the international break before contracting COVID-19 while on international duty.

“It’s tough for any player when you are stop-start. When you have one or two niggles, I think it’s frustrating,” said Tindall.

“It’s even more frustrating when you are off with, on this occasion, coronavirus, when you are picking up something like that and are unable to train or play.

“But I am sure all he wants to do is get as fit as he can, play as many minutes as he can and try to score as many goals as he can.

“For whatever reason it’s been very stop start for him this season and he’s got to now work extremely hard to get himself fit and fight for contention, to play some games and get in the team.”

King is yet to find the net for Cherries this season. His most recent club goal came against Everton on the final day of the 2019-20 campaign.