Newcastle United’s summer has been a mess so far, both on and off the pitch.
A struggle for new signings, an unwelcome Alexander Isak saga, several top targets rejecting us and, so far, three pre-season defeats in a row, not that these results carry too much significance.
And to make a tough situation worse, we’ve seen a few injury niggles over our last two games out in Asia.
Sven Botman only lasted 25 minutes against Arsenal due to a groin complaint, while Emil Krafth also felt something in our 1-0 defeat to a K-League XI earlier this week.
But the most worrying scenes featured Joe Willock going down in agony in the final minutes of that game, with the midfielder stretchered off. It didn’t not look good at all.
The good news today from Eddie Howe’s press conference in South Korea is that the injury isn’t serious. He’s not damaged an old Achilles issue and he won’t be out for months on end, but he will be missing the opening weeks of the new season.
“Joe Willock we initially feared that he could have injured part of his Achilles but that wasn’t the case. It looks like he has problems with a muscle in the calf,” Howe told the media this morning.
“We feel the injury is not as bad as first feared which is good news for Joe. It is going to keep him out for a number of weeks, how many we are not sure, early diagnosis is looking four to six, which is much better than we initially thought.”
So, the good news? It’s not season-ending before 2025/26 has even begun. But there can be limited positivity around his latest injury when he’ll now miss our final three pre-season games over the next week and will almost certainly sit out our first three Premier League games against Aston Villa (16th August), Liverpool (25th August) and Leeds (30th August).
With Sean Longstaff gone and Elliot Anderson not yet replaced, Willock’s injury leaves us with just one fit midfielder behind Tonali, Bruno and Joelinton; Lewis Miley.
Another midfielder is absolutely essential and must be addressed before the window shuts on September 1st.
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