BOURNEMOUTH boss Andoni Iraola believes Newcastle will have no problems coping with their striker struggles despite Callum Wilson's latest injury setback.

Wilson had surgery on a chest injury on Friday morning and will miss the bulk of what is left of the season, while Alexander Isak is a doubt for Saturday's visit of the Cherries because of a groin issue.

But Iraola still expects his defence to be busy at St James' Park this weekend.

He said: “They will have a top striker. Isak might be there and Anthony Gordon is one of the fastest players in the competition.

“They have a lot of options, (Harvey) Barnes, (Miguel) Almiron, (Jacob) Murphy and I could talk about others.

“The last games they scored three, four and three, so it’s not going to be easy for us not to concede.”

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Bournemouth head to Tyneside with no wins in five league games, three of which were lost.

The Cherries’ previous seven games produced six wins and saw them surge away from relegation trouble.

Iraola said: “It’s difficult to say (that it is) one thing. The last games – West Ham, Forest and Fulham – we haven’t been scoring enough.

“We have been missing a lot of chances and, in our winning run, we were scoring two or three.

“Part of it we have not been clinical enough and we now have to be best in our finishing, but also defensively because Newcastle score a lot of goals and have offensive power.”

While Newcastle could be without a recognised striker on Saturday afternoon, the visitors will have Dominic Solanke leading the line, who Howe - the frontman's former manager - believes is good enough to play for England.

When asked about a potential England call-up for the 26-year-old, Iraola said: “I don’t know, things change very quickly. We still have a lot of games to play before the international break.

“The only thing I can say is that Dom is playing very well since the beginning of the season.

“He’s scoring goals, he’s giving us a lot of things, and I hope he can have the recognition.

“But it’s not my job to make the England squad, and I have said a lot of times it is very difficult because the level of the national team is top.”