ANDONI Iraola believes Lloyd Kelly is ready to help Cherries following a rejected bid from Tottenham Hotspur, the head coach stating that it was in the defender’s “best interest” to play well.

Kelly missed Cherries’ last match prior to the international break, a 2-2 draw away at Brentford, having seen the club reject a bid worth a rumoured £20million from Spurs on the previous day.

The centre-back could be in contention on Sunday, when Cherries welcome Chelsea to Vitality Stadium in the first game after the September international break (2pm).

After the offer from Tottenham was rejected on deadline day, Kelly did not travel with the team to London, instead staying behind in order to clear his head.

The 24-year-old has now entered the final 12 months of his deal at Vitality Stadium, meaning the centre back could potentially leave for nothing come the end of the season.

But Iraola believes that the international break has served Kelly well, with the defender still not fully fit prior to his appearance off the bench against Liverpool, having suffered a calf injury in pre-season.

Iraola shared: “He has trained very well these past two weeks.

“I think they have been very good weeks for him because he came from an injury.

“So he needed the workload.

“Also, we were here just training with nine, 10 players so we could focus more on them.

“So I think they have been really successful weeks for him.”

The Basque boss pointed out that Kelly was not alone in being involved in deadline day drama, striker Kieffer Moore seeing a potential loan move to Millwall fall through, whilst Jaidon Anthony and Luis Sinisterra suffered a long wait ahead of a swap deal that will see the former spend the season at Leeds whilst the latter temporarily joins Cherries.

Iraola continued: “Probably the last day of the market was difficult not only for him, but Kieffer (Moore), for Jaidon Anthony, for Luis (Sinisterra), who came here at the end.

“But once the market is closed, I think everyone is really focused, willing to push. And he is ready to help us.

“He has trained really well these past two weeks.

“I think he is ready to help the team. He knows his best interest is to play well, to try to compete for minutes.

“Everyone is trying to push. And he has been training really, really well.”

So far in his Cherries career, Kelly has made 119 appearances in red and black, including three this term under Iraola.