Is Macca ready to step in?

You'll not hear Shaun MacDonald grumble about his lack of football this season. The Welshman has had a pretty difficult time of it having to watch his team mates from the bench and biding his time to contribute to the team in cup competitions and the odd few minutes here and there in league matches. I wonder what he might have felt when Eddie Howe was asked about the situation with Harry Arter due to miss the next two games, and with Dan Gosling and Eunan O'Kane still injured, and whether the loan market was something to look at now?

Has Macca's time finally arrived?

Macca will be hoping for sure that he can step in to Harry Arter's role and I don't see why he can't do a good job for the team with the experience he has. On the occasions we have seen him this season I have been impressed with the timings of his runs and his ability to get into scoring positions past the front man. We know that scoring goals is not something that he does as often as he or perhaps Eddie Howe would like, but he does cause teams problems and has always been one of the better tacklers at the club.

If Howe does decide to bring in another central midfielder it could just be as cover for Macca and Surman who would be best equipped to start the next couple of games with their knowledge of how Eddie wants the team to play. 

Last season AFCB were able to make good use of the loan system by bringing in West Ham's Jack Collinson who has recently been on loan at Championship rivals Ipswich Town, but he was injured and did not play a game for Mick McCarthy's side. Picking up similar quality now might be more difficult but AFCB need to find some central midfield cover with so many players out of contention.