Bristol City manager Nigel Pearson has confirmed that centre-back Rob Atkinson is suffering from illness after the 23-year-old was unable to play his 12th straight Championship game of the season.
Atkinson has played all 990 minutes of City's league campaign so far but the defender was feeling unwell on Saturday morning and his place for the visit of unbeaten Bournemouth has been taken by Nathan Baker.
Baker's introduction into the starting XI is the only change made by Nigel Pearson from the team that won 3-2 at Peterborough United following the international break.
"Rob is unwell today so he’s unavailable, I’m happy that Bakes is there to come in," Pearson told BBC Radio Bristol.
Pearson stated earlier this week that, bar Antoine Semenyo, Robbie Cundy and Tommy Conway, all those who were injured for the Peterborough game had returned to training.
Han-Noah Massengo is among that group, but unlike Baker, Nahki Wells and Jay Dasilva, there was no place for him in the matchday 18.
The French midfielder was at Ashton Gate around the first-team around the squad but as Pearson hinted in midweek, his explosive style of play means the Robins will be careful over bringing him back.
Massengo has missed the last four games with a hamstring injury sustained in the final moments of City's 2-1 win over QPR, but should come back into contention against Nottingham Forest on Tuesday.
"Han-Noah trained today, he’s looking in really good condition so hopefully we’ll have him available for the games this week," Pearson added.
"I hope we can carry the momentum from the Peterborough game, it’s not as wet today, obviously, but we know we have to be at our best today. We’re playing against a very good side who have had an exceptional start to the season but they’ll be expecting the same from us.
"They’ve got to lose at some point and we’ve got to start winning at home at some point, lets hope that it’s today.
"They’re a team that can pass out from the back but they can also mix it up as well, they’ve got players who are very capable of scoring goals, it will be a good game of football. I’m expecting us to be competitive from the start. We need to be aggressive against them but we also need to play our football."
Bristol City (4-2-3-1): Bentley; Tanner; Kalas, Baker, Pring; King, James; Williams, Weimann, O'Dowda; Martin; Subs: O'Leary, Simpson, Dasilva, Bakinson, Wells, Scott, Palmer
