ANDONI Iraola believes James Hill will be “valuable” to Cherries following his “very good loan” spell with Blackburn Rovers.

Hill, who joined Cherries for around £1million from Fleetwood Town in January 2022, headed to the Championship with Rovers at the start of this season in search of more regular game-time.

And the defender got exactly that, establishing himself in the first team and making 20 appearances.

It is understood the 22-year-old was keen to remain at the Lancashire club for the rest of the season, but due to defensive injuries in their squad, Cherries opted to recall him early.

Hill made his first Premier League start soon after, as a left-back against Liverpool, before being forced off with an ankle injury in the following game against Swansea City.

Following almost two months on the sidelines, Hill is now back available again and came on during the closing stages of last week’s crazy 4-3 win over Luton Town.

The former England under-21 international has now made eight competitive appearances in total for Cherries, and was a key part of pre-season after the arrival of Iraola last summer.

Discussing Hill’s early return to the club from Blackburn, Iraola told the Daily Echo: “I watched a couple of his games, obviously not all of them. We knew that he was performing really well.

“Everyone also there at Blackburn was happy with his performances.

“He played as a centre-back and as a right-back.

“I think he has the defensive ability to cope with difficult players, like he did against Liverpool.

“He is someone that is going to be valuable. We have seen it since the beginning.

“I think he was really good in pre-season for us. He played a lot of minutes.

“I remember him starting quite a lot of games in pre-season.

“We were not especially looking for a loan or if he wanted to continue here.

“But I think it was a very good option for him to play for Blackburn. He did really well.

“I think it was a very good loan.

“Whenever you send one player on loan, it is what you want to happen – them to go there, start a lot of games, have good performances, come back and help the team again.”

Hill, who also had a spell out on loan last season, in Scotland with Heart of Midlothian, will hope to further boost his fitness during this international break.

He may potentially feature for the development squad or in a behind-closed-doors friendly prior to Cherries’ first team returning to competitive action.

They next welcome Everton to Vitality Stadium in the Premier League on Saturday, March 30 (3pm).