After returning to Dean Court last Summer, Steve Lovell has yet to kick a ball in anger, having been out through injury since signing.
The former Cherries trainee, made a 45-minute appearance in a reserve match against Swindon Town on Tuesday afternoon without any cause for concern - the Cherries lost 2-0.
Speaking in the Bournemouth Evening Echo before the reserve match, Lovell is quoted as saying: "There is a massive difference from running to training and then playing in a game, so I’m going to be rusty but I’m looking forward to it. I’m not worried about how it is going to go, I am just looking forward to finally getting back to playing. I know that I’m very unlikely to be starting games or getting close to that. But if I can play some part off the bench and do my bit, hopefully I can repay the patience of the fans, chairman, manager and all the players. It is not easy being out for so long with an injury when it is my career and it is what I do. But you can kind of see the frustration of the fans when you have got someone who hasn’t been able to play. So, I would like to be able to do something to repay them because this is my home club as well".