OPINION
Rafa Benitez must offer Newcastle United defender Achraf Lazaar one final chance of redemption at St James Park after DeAndre Yedlin limped off against Tottenham on Saturday.
The Spanish manager following his side 2-1 defeat to Spurs shared after the match that Yedlin did suffer an issue due to his knee and that the club were waiting to see how bad the potential problems was.
“There is a problem with his knee, but we need to wait,” said Benitez, as quoted the Chronicle.
“The doctor has to assess him properly.”
The Chronicle did report that Yedlin was unlikely to be fit in time to face Cardiff City in the Magpies’ next league game and this set-back could see Javier Manquillo take the American’s places in the team.
Even though the summer transfer window has only just shut the Magpies are drastically short of options regarding their full-back position so much so that Manquillo seems like first-choice back-up for the position of right-back as well as left-back.
This means that if first-choice left-back Paul Dummett was set to join Yedlin on the sidelines anytime soon the Benitez would have real selection headache about who to play on the left-side of his defence.
Given the Spaniard’s lack of full-back options Lazaar, who has previously failed to impress since joining the club in 2016, must be brought in from the wilderness in order to be potential cover for Dummett in case the Magpies’ injury luck gets worse.
The 26-year-old was not handed a squad number for the 2018/19 campaign, as confirmed by the club’s official website, and was demoted to training with the U-23s this summer, as reported the Chronicle.
Yet given Benitez’s lact of options then he simply must welcome Lazaar back into the fold which will cause the defender to potentially play out of his skin if selected in a last-gasp bid to save his Magpies career.
Lazaar who has managed on 10 appearance for the Magpies senior side and had a dreadful loan spell at Benevento last season no doubt knows he is currently on borrowed time at the club.
Therefore while the 26-year-old may have been a disappointment in the past following the set-back to Yedlin, the Magpies can’t afford to sanction Lazaar’s exit or keep him hidden away in the U-23s as they might need to use him if their luck gets even worse.
