CHERRIES are left hoping for good news, with both of their strikers Dominic Solanke and Enes Unal struggling with injury.

Solanke missed Tuesday night’s FA Cup defeat to Leicester City due to a knee injury.

Unal took his spot in the team, but was forced off at half-time having suffered a problem to his collarbone after a slipping and colliding with Foxes defender Conor Coady.

Solanke has been Cherries’ talisman this season, bagging 16 goals.

Asked straight after the game why Solanke did not feature against Leicester, boss Andoni Iraola explained: “He wasn’t feeling well. He had some issues in the knee.

“It doesn’t look very big, but he wasn’t ready to be involved.

“Obviously it is never a good moment to lose your top scorer. I hope it is not something big and he can help us in the next games.

“We did an MRI just today (Tuesday), so we have to see what he has, assess him, how he wakes up tomorrow. From there, we will see.

“Today is when we decided not to risk him, because he wasn’t feeling well.

“You never want to lose your top scorer.”

Cherries only listed eight substitutes out of a possible nine for the game with Leicester, which ended with a 1-0 defeat in extra time.

“It was the place for Dom,” confirmed Iraola.

“We hoped that he could be on the bench. But we assessed him at the last moment and he wasn’t feel well.

“When someone like Dom, who is normally training and playing every minute, it says you cannot risk it.”

Discussing Unal’s withdrawal at half-time, Iraola said: “Enes, I think he has gone to the hospital also.

“He finished with something in the clavicle. We have to check if it is something worse or just a knock.

“He finished the first half, but he was already complaining in the last minutes.

“I think he was looking very dangerous. He was finishing some things.

“He was fighting well with the centre-backs. But it’s a shame he couldn’t continue. I hope he doesn’t have a really bad injury. But we will see.

“It is true that to lose your two number nines on the same day is always a bad thing.”

Cherries now face a nervous wait to see if they can recover either Solanke or Unal in time for Sunday’s trip to Burnley (1pm).

“I think Enes is going to be more difficult (to recover) because at the end he didn’t want to go out, but he had a really bad knock,” said Iraola.

“We will see. I hope it is not very bad. But when it is bone related, it is always very dangerous.

“I think Dom has more chances. It is very bad to go out of the competition and lose your two number nines on the same night.”