Eddie Howe says that Fabian Schar has been playing through the pain barrier after suffering with a foot injury. The Swiss ace had arguably been in the best form of his career at St James' Park under Howe and the boss described him as an "absolute bargain" when his budget transfer fee was put to him today.
But Howe hopes that Schar will be fit and available to face Everton after suffering a series of blows and knocks in the 0-0 draw at Old Trafford. Schar was one of the heroes against Man United and was many people's pick for man of the match.
Howe said: "Fabian is fine, he has been nursing a foot injury for a while now, it's a long-term thing. He has managed it very well. "It just started to irritate him towards the end of the game but I think he will be OK."
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Others to hobble off at Man United included Bruno Guimaraes and Kieran Trippier. Howe said: "I think we are assessing everybody. When you have the three game week like we are in the middle of now, every day you wake up and feel better for a night's sleep. Hopefully everybody will be OK but we wait and see."
With two more games this week, Howe was also asked about the availability of former England midfielder Jonjo Shelvey.
Howe added: "The key thing is for Jonjo is training so we are continuing to work him very hard. He is still in the process of the very early stages of coming back. He would only enter the pitch in an emergency for us. We are building his load and managing his game-time but he's looking good and has done really well.
"He's as fit as we have seen him and he's in a great place. We just need to be careful with him."
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