Eddie Howe suspects ligament damage for Jermain Defoe

Bournemouth boss Eddie Howe has said that he fears being without striker Jermain Defoe over the festive period due to suspected ankle ligament damage.

The 35-year-old hobbled off the field during the opening quarter of the Cherries' 2-1 defeat to Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday night.

Defoe was tackled by Ethan Ampadu with a little over a minute on the clock and was ultimately unable to run it off, seeing his 11th start of the campaign cut short before he could make any sort of impact.

Howe is now awaiting the results of a scan on the Englishman's ankle, but he is bracing himself for a potential layoff heading into the busiest stretch of the season.

"There's potentially some damage to his ankle ligaments," he told reporters. "Personally, I didn't see the challenge on Defoe as a red card. My gut feeling was a yellow, but obviously we lost Jermain.

"It's been a bizarre week for us. We went to Manchester United and were really proactive, Liverpool was poor, then we played so well here. We leave positive, but we have Manchester City next."

Bournemouth are also currently without Norway international Joshua King, who suffered a hamstring injury against Liverpool last weekend.