Bournemouth head coach Andoni Iraola has provided a positive injury update on striker Evanilson ahead of Saturday's Premier League clash with Wolverhampton Wanderers.
The Brazilian has missed the last seven matches after he underwent surgery on a broken metatarsal at the beginning of January.
Evanilson's injury was then compounded by Enes Unal's season-ending knee injury, leaving Iraola light on centre-forward options.
As a result, Iraola has utilised Dango Ouattara as a number nine in recent weeks, with the forward netting four goals across the last five Premier League matches.
While Ouattara has performed impressively as a striker, Bournemouth will still be keen to get Evanilson back to full fitness as soon as possible.
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Iraola provides positive Evanilson injury update
Speaking in Friday's pre-match press conference, Iraola has revealed that Evanilson is making good progress in his recovery from a foot injury.
"He's doing well," Iraola told reporters. "It's a different injury because it's not a muscle injury, it's just that the bone has to heal.
"You have surgery and you have to wait, now he's doing a lot of things, but in the first weeks when you cannot do anything with the foot, it has been boring. Now he's doing very well, yes."
Iraola indicated that a return could be on the horizon when asked about when Evanilson could be available for selection.
"He's not far," Iraola added. "No, because it's a different injury, it's not a muscle injury and he's doing a lot of things already with us, so it's not far."
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Soler, Hill set to return
In more positive news, Iraola revealed that Julio Soler and James Hill are set to feature in the matchday squad after being unavailable due to international duty and injury respectively.
"We will recover Julio, who has come back from the national team. He arrived yesterday night, so he's probably not 100% but he's an option," Iraola said.
"Also, Hilly has been training with us this week and we'll see if he can make the squad. If not, that's also good news because he will be available for the next games as we have three next week. It's good that we're starting to recover players slowly, yes."
Soler will bolster Bournemouth's left-back options after spending the last month representing Argentina in the Under-20 South American Championship.
Meanwhile, Hill will add to Bournemouth's central defensive depth behind the first-choice centre-back pairing of Ilya Zabarnyi and Dean Huijsen.
