CHERRIES boss Sean O'Driscoll admits he is relishing the prospect of nursing a few more selection headaches.

O'Driscoll had the luxury of choosing from a strengthened squad ahead of Cherries' Division Two showdown against QPR on Saturday.

And the renewed depth was illustrated in no uncertain terms by the change in personnel on the Cherries substitutes' bench.

O'Driscoll's options improved significantly following the arrival of loan signing Claus Jorgensen and the return from illness of Karl Broadhurst and Warren Cummings.

As a result, O'Driscoll had a wealth of experience to call upon, with Jorgensen joining Wade Elliott, Danny Thomas, Brian Stock and Derek Holmes on the bench.

It was a far cry from seven days earlier when the Cherries boss had been forced to name first-year pro Fawzi Saadi and non-contract trialist Matt Robinson among his subs.

But as the Dean Court injury crisis continues to ease, the Cherries squad could soon be further boosted by the return of Steve Purches, Shaun Maher and Jason Tindall, leaving O'Driscoll with a number of additional alternatives.

O'Driscoll said: "I've had selection problems all season, but these are nice problems to have. We had the two boys who were ill for the Barnsley game back and we managed to get Claus in thanks to the generosity of the people who donate to Playershare.

"All of a sudden, the picture had changed and it was nice to be able to turn to Wade and Claus to replace our two wide men against QPR. Garreth O'Connor and Steve Cooke had both worked really hard and I just felt we needed some fresh legs because we were under a bit of pressure.

"There's not a lot to choose between the players and it's just a case of trying to pick the right ones for the right games. It's nice when you can have as many options as we had against QPR.

"As long as the players can understand the situation then we're going into the final third of the season with the strongest squad we've had since day one. Now we just need to touch wood and keep our fingers crossed that we can keep everybody fit.

"Hopefully we can get through the week without picking up any injures and have 19 or 20 players ready and fit for selection for the Wrexham game."

Despite Cherries' recent upturn in fortunes on the injury front, O'Driscoll is still mindful of how quickly things can change.

He added: "That's football. Ideally, you would like a squad of 24 with at least two players vying for every position.

"If we could afford to do that we would, but finances dictate we can't and we've got to cut our cloth accordingly and take a chance.

"We're not alone and I would imagine almost every team in the country has similar problems. A strong side like QPR had two or three players out on Saturday and struggled to replace them.

"I think we've managed as well as we could. The players have proved to be as flexible and adaptable as they can be, but unfortunate situations like last week at Barnsley don't really give you much chance to change things around because you just lack extra numbers."