Soccer-Bournemouth have depth to cope with injury problems, says Elphick

Sept 30 (Reuters) - Bournemouth squad have the strength in depth to cope with the loss of several key players to injury, captain Tommy Elphick has said. Club record signing Tyrone Mings has been ruled out for the season with an anterior cruciate ligament injury, while summer recruit Max Gradel is out for six months after tearing a cruciate ligament in his knee. Joining them on the treatment table is the Cherries' leading goalscorer Callum Wilson, who is set for at least six months on the sidelines. Wilson sustained a similar injury to Mings in the club's 2-1 loss to Stoke City on Saturday and has scored five of the Bournemouth's nine league goals this season. "It is incredibly bad luck to lose three players to such serious injuries in a short space of time. But it is what it is and we've got to get on with it," Elphick, who has missed the last two games with a minor ankle problem, was quoted as saying by the British media. "I understand people are going to be concerned at losing a player of Callum's importance. Don't get me wrong, if Callum was at Chelsea and got injured, he would be a huge loss for them. "But this is why we build a squad. The ones who haven't played as much as they would have wanted have always been ready to step up to the plate when needed. "I look around the changing room every day and see enough there to replace the players we've lost." (Reporting by Shravanth Vijayakumar in Bengaluru; editing by Sudipto Ganguly)