EDDIE Howe revealed luckless injury victim Junior Stanislas had undergone a minor operation on a knee issue – and is set to be out for another two months.

The talented winger has not featured for Cherries since April, having sustained a hamstring problem after 23 minutes against Fulham at Vitality Stadium.

And Howe said the former West Ham and Burnley star had felt pain in his knee during the recovery.

Giving an update on the 29-year-old, the Cherries boss told the Daily Echo: “Junior is a little bit behind. He’s just had a very minor operation, just to correct a pain he was feeling in his knee.

“It’s something that occasionally happens with long-term injured players but Junior is now, after the operation, a lot more confident and a lot happier with his situation.

“I think it’s still going to be a couple of months before we see him.

“It’s not a major setback, it’s just something that, occasionally, you have to go through, get things checked out, check it’s all okay and then move on again.

“This one in particular has been tough because it was on the back of a couple of injuries from last year.”

Stanislas has played 114 times for the Dorset club since reuniting with Howe, who also worked with him at Burnley.

The boss added: “When you can’t get that run of games you want in the team it can frustrate you and when you are in that situation it can get you down.

“But Junior is now positive again.

“We are very keen to get him back, he’s such an important player for us. He’s so pivotal to how we play – the technical ability of him is so high that we’ve missed his creativity.

“He knows how highly we rate him. We have worked together for a long time now.

“It’s more of a case of making sure he was on the right path in terms of what the problem was and making sure he was clear in his mind that once he started running on the grass and kicking a ball again he was going to get no further complications.

“We are pretty sure in our minds now that we are there.”