CHERRIES frontman Dominic Solanke is eager to test himself against former team-mate Virgil van Dijk – having already spent time shooting hoops with him on the basketball court.

The England international will be looking to bag a big three-pointer when van Dijk and his Champions League-winning team-mates visit Vitality Stadium in the Premier League tomorrow (3pm).

Solanke came through the youth ranks at Chelsea before arriving at Anfield in the summer of 2017. He was then signed by Cherries for £17.5million in January.

And he revealed Holland skipper van Dijk, who this week finished runner-up in the voting for the Ballon D’or behind Lionel Messi, was one of his close acquaintances on Merseyside.

“Virgil was a good friend of mine when I was there. We always spent time together,” he told the Daily Echo.

“He was always joking and we both like basketball, so we would always play basketball before training or sometimes in our spare time.

“It was alright, I was better than him though! It was just shooting.”

Speaking about the former Southampton and Celtic star on the football pitch, Solanke added: “He is probably one of the most difficult defenders I have ever had to train (against) – and now I am going to be playing against him.

“He is just so composed on the ball, he’s a natural leader. He is technical and so strong.

“Everyone knows how good of a player he is, it’s going to be a good battle. It will be nice to play against him as a friend as well but obviously, he’s a top player, so I will be looking forward to it.”

Of the Ballon D’or nominees, Jurgen Klopp’s men had four players in the top seven, with runner-up van Dijk joined by Sadio Mane (fourth), Mo Salah (fifth) and goalkeeper Alisson Becker (seventh).

“I learned a lot there. There was obviously a lot of world class players,” added 22-year-old Solanke.

“The whole team is world class, you saw how many of them were involved in the Ballon D’or awards. They are doing very well at the moment.

“I was thankful for my time there. It’s going to be a good game at the weekend and hopefully we can get something from it.”

Eddie Howe’s side go into the contest against the top-flight leaders having lost four games on the bounce, with defeats coming against Newcastle, Wolves, Tottenham and Crystal Palace.

“Hopefully we can bounce back from the defeat on Tuesday and get some points on Saturday,” said Solanke. “I still think we can do really well. We have such a good squad at the moment, we still have a lot of boys coming back from injury.

“We will be very thankful to have them back, hopefully some soon and they will give us a boost.

“We just have to make sure that we all stay fit and give our all in every game.

“We know there is a game every few days at some point, so we need to make sure we are all helping each other and recover well to try to get back to winning ways.”