Bournemouth will be able to call on Eli Junior Kroupi as they visit Manchester United this weekend, it has been confirmed.

The French striker has been sidelined since the summer, when he suffered a fractured metatarsal in pre-season training.

Prior to that, he had been a transfer target for a number of Premier League clubs, Arsenal and Tottenham included, but interest waned after he was forced to undergo surgery.

But he is finally due to make a comeback this weekend as the high-flying Cherries visit crisis-stricken Manchester United.

Bournemouth boss Marco Rose confirmed: "The plan is to take him with us to Manchester and give him some minutes."

Kroupi’s return is great news for Bournemouth. The Frenchman scored 13 league goals last season and has been sorely missed.

Eli Junior Kroupi back in training ahead of Bournemouth’s trip to Old Trafford

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It is an unneeded setback for United, however, where the under-pressure Michael Carrick is in dire need of a win.

Wednesday’s Champions League loss at Como took their winless run to seven matches and saw the Geordie widely tipped for the sack, but he has managed to cling on to his job for this weekend.

He remains on thin ice, though, and knows nothing less than a win will be enough to lift the dark clouds hanging low over Old Trafford.

Rose, however, insists that the noise will not distract Bournemouth, who have now won three on the spin, actually admitting United will be more motivated to win than usual.

"It should not affect us and our work,” said the German. “I hear the voices and the noise around the club, but I don't know if it helps us because everyone in Manchester seems to know now what to do and how to do it.

“It's up to us to go there, be focused, bring our football onto the pitch and react well to situations.

"I think they're going to be angry, they're going to be intense. We have to face it, make an open game of it and, at the end, we want to win it.

“You always get to a point where you have nothing to lose any more, sometimes as a manager, as a club, as players. That's why it's always difficult."