GARY O’Neil confirmed Cherries would remain in Bournemouth during the international break, as opposed to flying off for a warm weather training camp.

Some clubs are expected to head off during the upcoming two-week break before Premier League fixtures return on April 1, including Newcastle United, with Eddie Howe taking his squad to Dubai.

Cherries will have a depleted squad for training over the next few days, with 11 players set to head away on international duty.

Illia Zabarnyi (Ukraine), Ryan Christie (Scotland), Philip Billing (Denmark), Mark Travers (Republic of Ireland), Chris Mepham and Kieffer Moore (both Wales) are set to take part in Euro 2024 qualifiers.

Meanwhile, Dango Ouattara (Burkina Faso), Hamed Traore (Ivory Coast) and Antoine Semenyo (Ghana) will all be looking to boost their respective countries’ chances of qualifying for the Africa Cup of Nations.

Jefferson Lerma (Colombia) and Matias Vina (Uruguay) will also be away, competing in friendly matches.

Asked what the plans will be during the international break, with so many players away, O’Neil told the Daily Echo: “It will be small numbers. So we will try and keep the ones that are here ticking over, make sure we stay sharp and keep them engaged in what is an important next few weeks for us.

“There will be a few away. Hopefully they will come through unscathed and we can keep the group looking as strong as it is, if not stronger.

“Tav (Marcus Tavernier) and Illia hopefully back in and around it afterwards. Hopefully we come back with a full-strength group to attack the last 11 games with.”

Asked if Cherries will be training in Bournemouth or jetting off, O’Neil confirmed: “We’ll be working here.

“There’s a lot of work that still needs to be done. I know the numbers will be small, but there are some key members in those that need to do some good work. So we’ll be here.”

Cherries head into the fortnight on the back of a 3-0 loss at Aston Villa, which leaves them in the relegation zone.

Upon their return, O’Neil’s men face a huge run of fixtures in April, starting with home matches against Fulham and Brighton & Hove Albion within the space of four days.

They also face Leicester City, Tottenham Hotspur, West Ham United, Southampton and Leeds United next month.

Asked what needs doing during the next fortnight, following the loss at Villa, O’Neil said: “The group will be fine.

“They understand that Saturday we were slightly below our level on certain things, not on all things, but on certain things we were below the level we needed to be at.

“Obviously we’ve got a few players away, quite a few away, so it will be smaller numbers.

“But there’s some good work we can get into the ones that are here.

“We’ve got a little two-week gap and then some huge games coming up, especially some home games as well, so we need to be ready.”