Manager Kevin Bond is quoted in the Bournemouth Evening Echo as saying: "It is very unlikely that he will be starting pre-season training, and, because of that, we've lost a player so as things stand at the moment, I've got to reckon on not having him. I was really looking forward to having him back. He only really figured before he got injured when it was a difficult time for us in the early stages. I have high regard for him and would dearly love to have seen him playing up the left-hand side for us. It was a position we had to get loan players in to cover and, unfortunately, Steven didn't feature in our good run after Christmas because he was injured. For all those reasons, I was looking forward to getting him back on the field and now it doesn't look like I'm going to in pre-season".